Sarajevo Jury: European Film Academy CEO & Greek Director

European Film Academy CEO and Greek New Wave Director Join Emily Watson on Sarajevo Jury

July 22, 2026 - USA Film News | The Sarajevo Film Festival has announced its main competition jury for the 2026 edition, and the lineup carries significant weight from across the European film landscape. The jury will be presided over by acclaimed British actress Emily Watson, who herself has long been a fixture in both independent and prestige international cinema. Joining her are two newly confirmed members: the CEO of the European Film Academy, and a prominent director from the Greek New Wave movement.

The inclusion of the European Film Academy’s chief executive underscores the festival’s deepening connection to the broader institutional currents shaping European cinema. As the head of the organization that oversees the European Film Awards, this juror brings a panoramic view of the continent’s filmmaking trends. The presence also signals that Sarajevo, already the largest and most prominent film festival in Southeast Europe, continues to position itself as a key interlocutor between regional talent and the mainstream European industry.

The addition of a Greek New Wave director, meanwhile, reinforces the festival’s reputation for championing bold, auteur-driven work. The Greek New Wave-often associated with directors like Yorgos Lanthimos, Athina Rachel Tsangari, and others who emerged in the late 2000s and early 2010s-has been defined by its deadpan absurdism, formal experimentation, and willingness to challenge narrative conventions. Having a director from this lineage on the jury is a clear signal that the competition will be judged by standards that prize the distinctive and the provocative.

Emily Watson, who steps into the role of jury president, brings a career built on performances in both celebrated art-house films and major studio productions. From her early Oscar-nominated work in Breaking the Waves and Hilary and Jackie to later roles in The Elephant Man and the Chernobyl miniseries, Watson has been a constant presence in films that prioritize character and craft. Her leadership of the jury is expected to lend both gravitas and a performer’s sensitivity to the deliberation process.

The Sarajevo Film Festival, set to run in August, is known for its focus on the post-Yugoslav region and its ability to program competitive sections that draw emerging directors from the Balkans, the wider European context, and beyond. This year’s competition, the festival organizers have noted, received an unusually high volume of submissions, a testament both to the festival’s growing prestige and the sheer volume of filmmaking activity in the region.

While the complete list of competition films has yet to be unveiled, the makeup of the jury already provides a hint of the festival’s curatorial priorities. With a jury that includes an industry institutional voice, a director from a formally adventurous movement, and an actor with deep roots in both indie and mainstream cinema, the awards are likely to reflect a balance of industrial recognition and artistic risk-taking.

The presence of the European Film Academy CEO also serves a practical role beyond the jury room. The Sarajevo festival has increasingly functioned as a networking hub for European coproduction initiatives, and the CEO’s participation will likely facilitate further collaboration between regional producers and the larger European funding apparatus. The Greek New Wave director’s involvement may similarly spark conversations about support systems for unconventional cinema-something the Greek film industry itself has struggled with even as its international profile soared.

Sarajevo is a festival that has historically been keen to bridge the gap between the regional specificity of Balkan storytelling and the universal language of cinema. By assembling a jury that includes both a major international acting talent and figures from two distinct but influential corners of European film infrastructure, the festival makes a statement about its own ambitions as a platform that does not simply showcase films, but actively participates in shaping the future of European cinema.

Further jury members are expected to be announced in the coming week, ahead of the festival’s official opening. For now, the trio of Watson, the European Film Academy CEO, and the Greek New Wave director forms the backbone of a jury that seems designed to regard each film in the competition with both institutional acumen and aesthetic curiosity. That combination, festival insiders suggest, should make for a particularly interesting award ceremony when the winners are named in August.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter