The Sarajevo Film Festival unveiled the winners of its 2025 Cinelink Industry Days Awards, including the Put a Little Empty, a portrait of an awkward relationship in Hungary under far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who received the Eurimages Co-producers Development Award.
Other winners include Gorilla, the Vision Award-winning television drama Pitch, which takes place in 1960s Paris, where a French film star and his fellow Yugoslav guards are threatened by a Hollywood assassination.
Projects across various formats and development internships were presented in Southeast Europe and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region at its 23rd edition. And now, awards have been given to the Cinelink Co-Production Market, the Cinelink Work in Progress, and the Cinelink Drama sections.
The 31st edition of the Sarajevo Festival ends today, Friday.
Below are the Cinelink winners.
Cinelink Co-Production Market Awards
Eurimages Co-Production Development Award
Put a Little Emptiness
Synopsis: “A controversial and intimate portrait of a strange relationship against the backdrop of Orbán Hungary.”
Director: Dorka Worms
Writer: Sára Törley-Havas
Producers: Evelyn Balogh, Botond Lelkes
Production Company: Non Lieu Kft.
Country: Hungary
Award for €20,000
Montenegro Cinelink Award Cinema Center
Piedra
Synopsis: “Shams and her husband arrive from their village and head to an unfinished construction site, where he works to pay off his gambling debts. Drawn to his addiction, the pregnant Shams lets herself be sidetracked among the outcasts living on the banks, until the forces around her collapse.
Director: Hilal Baydarov
Writers: Hilal Baydarov, Georg Tiller
Producers: Maéva Ranaïvojaona, Georg Tiller, Hilal Baydarov
Production Company: Subobsura Films
Co-production company: UCQAR Film
Countries: Austria, Azerbaijan
Award € 10,000
Sérbia Cinelink Award from the Cinema Center
Pogana
Synopsis: “On a remote Dalmatian island in the 1920s, Pogana, a country woman, sells herself to become the new wife of a widower with five children. When the sailor is lost at sea, Pogana is at the mercy of the cruel residents and their customs.”
Director: David Kapac
Writers: Andrija Mordešić, David Kapac
Producers: Rea Rajčić, Tina Tišljar
Production Company: Electics
Co-production companies: Vertigo
Countries: Croatia, Slovenia
Award for € 10,000
Arthokino
International Award Two Little Nightmares
Synopsis: “Thirty years after his father’s suicide erased a year from his memory, a griffin returns home. As he pieces together the past, he uncovers a long-ago betrayal, a terrifying secret, and the terrified child he has been.”
Director: Nebojša Slijepčević
Writers: Nebojša Slijepčević, Nađa Petrović
Producers: Danijel Pek, Katarina Prpić
Production Company: Antitalent
Co-production companies: Sensory Production, Studio Virc, Contrast Movies, Les Films Norfolk
Co-producers: Milan Stojanović, Boštjan Virc, Katya Trichkova, Noelle Levenez
Countries: Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, France
Award for €6,000
Cinelink and Drama Co-Production Market
Women's Voice of India Award Cinelink
Rain
Synopsis: «In early 2000s Istanbul, Gül's high school secret is exposed after her classmate's suicide, turning her life upside down. Gül embarks on a journey to find her inner strength for independence and growth.»
Director: Zeynep Köprülü
Writers: Zeynep Köprülü, Haziran Düzkan
Producers: Utku Zeka, Zeynep Köprülü, Cansu Menlikli
Production Company: Film Film
Country: Türkiye
Award for € 20,000
Cinelink Drama
Council of Europe Co-Production Development Award
Red Water
Synopsis: “In 1989, on the Croatian coast, a family is torn apart when the daughter disappears. Their dark secrets disintegrate the community for two decades until the return of the ex-wife reveals the truth.”
Creator: Ljubica Luković
Writers: Ljubica Luković, Jica Pavičić
Director: Antoneto Alamat Kusijanović
Producer: Danijel Pek
Production Company: Antitalent
Country: Croatia
Award for € 50,000
Croatian Audiovisual Center Drama Award
Wonderful
Synopsis: “Dissatisfied with the way her life ends, a woman starts waking up in the mornings when she made some of the major decisions that she has shaped. She follows alternative paths to different lives that could have been.”
Creators and writers: Katarina Mitrović, Isidora Veselinović, Vladimir Tagić
Directors: Vladimir Tagić, Isidora Veselinović
Producer: Marija Stojanović
Production Company: SensA Production
Country: Serbia
Award for € 15,000
Pitch Vision Award TV Drama Drama
Gorilla
Synopsis: «In the decaying world of 1960s Paris, a French film star and the powerful brotherhood of his guard.
Creator: Gabor Krigler
Writers: Eszter Angyalosy, Cyril Tysz
Director: Christian Gudegast
Producer: Ivana Miković
Production Company: Firefly Productions
Country: Serbia
Cinelink Work in Progress Awards
HBO Award
Who We Are
Synopsis: “After a student commits suicide, a school trip reveals the terrifying path to tragedy. As the trip unfolds, the perpetrators are the same, the victims are new, and the shadow of the dead students looms over them all.”
Director: Miroslav Terzić
Producer: Snežana Van Houwelingen
Production Company: this and that productions
Co-production companies: Nightswim, Invictus, PTD, Kinorama
Countries: Serbia, Italy, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Croatia
Award for € 30,000
Radio Turkey National Television Award
Yesterday the eye did not sleep
Synopsis: «In a valley veiled by fog and tribal codes, two sisters enter the night, not as daughters, but as offerings, where blood, memory and silence try to prevent the fire from spreading.»
Director: Rakan Mayasi
Producer: Jennifer Ritter, Rakan Mayasi
Production Company: Atata
Countries: Belgium, Palestine, Lebanon
Award for € 10,000
Post-Republic Award
Where?
Synopsis: “The different taxi tours across Berlin between Hassan, a middle-aged Palestinian Uber driver, and the young Israeli who gets lost in the city, tells a tragic-comedy story about the future.”
Director: Assaf Machnes
Producers: Tomer Mecklberg, Haim Mecklberg, Oren Rogovin, Mohamad Babi
Production Company: 2 Team Productions
Co-production companies: Lev Cinema, Rogovin Brothers, Iconoclast Germany
Country: Israel, Germany
Prize of €30,000 in kind
Avanpost Media Award
17
Synopsis: “After having a threesome with her classmates, 17-year-old Sara becomes pregnant and tries to hide it from everyone, which becomes especially difficult during the undergraduate tour.”
Director: Kosara Mitić
Producer: Tomi Salkovski
Production Company: Black Cat Production
CO -Production Companies: Art & Popcorn, December
Countries: North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia
Prize of € 30,000 in kind
Cinelink is running and docum
Film Thought Impact Production Award
Lost and Found: Romania’s Hidden Adoption Market
Synopsis: “When a young Canadian woman who was sold as a child in post-chain Romania returns to reclaim her identity, she discovers the machinery that tracked down the sister she never knew – one of 30,000 exported for adoption.”
Director: Laurentiu Garofaanu
Producer: Laurentiu Garofaanu
Editor: Iulian Ghervas
Production Company: Mekanism Media (RO)
Country: Romania
Length: 90 min
Prize of €20,000 in kind
EAA +
Marija Stojanović
