Sarajevo Film Festival Adds Audience-Voted Prix Cineplexx
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- Sarajevo Film Festival introduced the Prix Cineplexx, a new audience-voted award for the best film in its Open Air Premiere program, to be presented for the first time at its 32nd edition running Aug. 14–21.
- The prize carries a total value of €20,000 ($22,900), split between €15,000 in Cineplexx marketing services for the winning film's theatrical release and €5,000 in cash awarded to the film's producer.
- Cineplexx, the Austria-based cinema operator with roughly 70 theaters and more than 500 screens across 12 countries including Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Slovenia, is the award's sponsoring partner.
- Festival director Jovan Marjanović said the award offers regional films "tangible support beyond the festival itself" by pairing audience recognition with a guaranteed marketing push through one of the region's largest cinema chains.
- Christof Papousek, Cineplexx's CFO and co-owner — and recipient of the 2024 Heart of Sarajevo — said sponsoring an audience-chosen award for regional films "feels only natural" given the chain's long partnership with the festival.
- The Open Air Premiere section was carved out of the broader Open Air program last year and screens the most anticipated new works from across the former Yugoslavia at the Uniqa Open Air Cinema Stari Grad.
Why it matters: Regional filmmakers from the former Yugoslavia now receive €15,000 in guaranteed Cineplexx marketing and distribution support alongside audience validation — a concrete festival-to-box-office pipeline that most awards programs do not provide.
