The 10th annual Bosnian-Herzegovinian Film Festival was a smashing success! Congratulations to Halima’s Path director for winning the Golden Apple Audience Award for the Best Picture

May 13, 2013

The executive team of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Film Festival (BHFF) wants to extend our deep gratitude to everyone who came to the 10th annual BHFF, which took place at Tribeca Cinemas in New York City, May 9-11.

We are proud to report that the BHFF saw a packed house for opening night and beyond, drawing in a diverse crowd that included members of the tri-state diaspora, as well as a broad collection of local film enthusiasts.

We want to congratulate the winner of this year’s Golden Apple Audience Award for the Best Picture, Arsen Ostojić, for his film Halima’s Path. This is a compelling feature about a widow who is trying to salvage the remains of her son and husband who were killed in the war years ago. In this emotional drama inspired by true events, Ostojić depicts a heart-wrenching story of motherhood and a nation struggling to find closure. Ostojić was present at the Awards Ceremony to accept the Golden Apple award.

In addition to Halima’s Path, this year, we screened an impressive slate of 13 films hailing from countries including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Croatia, England, Ireland, Italy, Macedonia, The Netherlands, Serbia, Slovenia and the United States.

We also hosted compelling filmmaker and actor Q&As with luminaries such as the inimitable actor Armande Assante, producer and actor Kresh Novakovic and the crew of The Fix, which was shown at BHFF. We also had Q&As with Goran Slavković, lead actor from Krivina, Arsen Ostojić, director of Halima’s Path and Nebojša Šerić-Shoba, director of Blockhouse.

After the final screening, we celebrated a decade of bringing the best in Balkan cinema to New York City with a swinging party at The Varick Room. The talented team from Omchël supplied mouth-watering pastries to fill our stomachs, while Veveritse brought down the house with their lively tunes and exuberant performances!

This year’s festival also made Libertas Film Magazine, where writer Joe Bendel reviewed Children of Sarajevo (Djeca). Bendel said this award-winning production showcased “powerful work” by director Aida Begić and by Marija Pikić, who played the lead role of Rahima. The article can be found here.

Many thanks to everyone who helped to make the 10th annual BHFF a spectacular success: members of the BHFF Executive Team; our volunteers; participating filmmakers; distributors; production companies; Influenster (Contributing Sponsor); and media (Bosnian-American TV; bih-x.info; BZFILM.COM; Cinemit; efm.ba; Libertas Film Magazine; Radio M; Revija Fokus; Sym magazine; and many others).

We would like to thank the official BHFF 2013 Jury, an expert panel comprising acclaimed director and screenwriter Goran Rusinović; award-winning filmmaker and humanitarian Bill Carter; and acclaimed photojournalist and documentary filmmaker Sara Terry.

An additional thank you goes to: Bilyana Tosić Petino; Burek The; Dr. Džemaludin Harba; DJL Architect PC; Graphic Executions; Indira Musić Mukić; Mehanata Bulgarian Bar; Miro Legin; Mirza Medjunanin; Nebojša Šerić-Shoba; Omchël; Stone Creek Bar; Trix; Veveritze; as well as those who helped us with donations: Selma and Goran Avdičević; Mirza Kafedžić; Velin Mezinev; Milad Hadžiabdić; Vadim Kramer; Michelle Kaicher; Steven Mandel; Nathan Ritsko; Stephanie Bowker; Elvedin Luković; Richard Wraxall Moore and Barbara Forster Moore; Adnan and Nermica Šarčević; Steven Summers; Allen Blankenship; Benjamin Coleman; Emir Halepović; Su-Lin Watson; Eric Schwartz; John Morley; Shannon O’Toole; Lori Griffin; Christopher Hartzell; Karen Potter; Lisa McEnery; Sirin Neyzi; David Pareja; Alexandra Jerez-Fernandez; Annie Boardman; Singh Gurbani; Zorijana Migliorini; Žarko Cvetanović; Andrew Stella; Linnea Perelli-Minetti; Kate Wilfert; Shen Chen; James Blake; Andrea Adisusanto; Kevin “KC” Clark; Marco Gomez; Patricio Gonzalez; Brandon Goodnow; Ayse Sabuncu; Zlata Gleason; Đula Luković; Rose Kathy Vuković; Sabina Omerhodžić; Ben Korman and Mitul Foster.

It truly takes a village! Thank you!

Stay tuned for the jury awards, which will be announced this summer.

Don’t forget to visit www.bhffnyc.org for regular updates, and if you haven’t done so already, please sign up for our mailing list . Please follow us on Facebook and Tweeter .

That’s it for now! We look forward to the 11th annual BHFF in May 2014—see you there!

Sincerely,

The BHFF Executive Team