03/08/2022 - In recognition of their outstanding contribution to the art of film, the three directors and the actor-director will pick up the gong at the gathering

Director Ruben Östlund (© Sina Östlund), director Sergei Loznitsa, director Paul Schrader (© Montclair Film Festival) and actor-director Jesse Eisenberg (© Gage Skidmore)

The Sarajevo Film Festival’s Honorary Heart of Sarajevo Awards will be given to Swedish director and screenwriter Ruben Östlund, Belarus-born Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa, US director and screenwriter Paul Schrader, and US actor and director Jesse Eisenberg

The first award will be presented on 12 August at the festival's opening ceremony, before the screening of his latest film Triangle of Sadness [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ruben Östlund
interview: Ruben Östlund
film profile], winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes. The second one will be presented on 13 August, before the special screening of The Card Counter [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], starring Oscar Isaac and Tiffany Haddish. The third one will be during the festival's opening ceremony, while the fourth one will be presented on 15 August, ahead of a special screening of Eisenberg’s directorial feature debut When You Finish Saving the World.

Östlund was born in 1974. Beginning with his second feature film, Involuntary [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Erik Hemmendorff
interview: Ruben Östlund
film profile], which premiered as part of the Un Certain Regard programme, all of Östlund's films were screened in Cannes. He won the Golden Bear in Berlin with the short film Incident by a Bank. Östlund's third feature film, Play [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ruben Östlund
interview: Ruben Ostlund
film profile], received a nomination for the European Parliament's LUX Award. His fourth feature film, Force Majeure [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ruben Östlund
film profile], premiered as part of Cannes' Un Certain Regard, where he won the Jury Award. The film was nominated for the Golden Globe Award and was shortlisted for the Oscar Award. Östlund's fifth feature film, The Square [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ruben Östlund
film profile], won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

Loznitsa was born in 1964. He has been making films since 1996, and has by now directed 25 award-winning documentaries and four fiction films. His fiction feature debut My Joy [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] premiered in the Cannes competition, followed by his next feature film In the Fog [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. His third fiction feature A Gentle Creature [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sergei Loznitsa
film profile] also showed up in the Palme d'Or competition, and he the Best Director award of the Un Certain Regard section for his fourth fiction film, Donbass [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sergei Loznitsa
film profile]. His documentaries have been travelling film festivals ever since, and his most recent one, The Natural History of Destruction [+see also:
film review
film profile], has just premiered at Cannes. The festival will also host a retrospective of films by him in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the art of cinema.

Schrader was born in 1946. He has written and directed over 30 films, including four collaborations with Martin Scorsese, the first of which, Taxi Driver, won the Palme d'Or at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival. In 1978, he directed his first film, Blue Collar, based on a screenplay he co-wrote with his brother. Later that same year, Schrader wrote and directed Hardcore, followed by American Gigolo, Cat People, Mishima and Affliction. In 2019, Schrader was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for First Reformed, which he also directed. During the festival, Schrader will also hold a master class at 11 am on 13 August, officially opening this year's Talents Sarajevo programme of master classes.

Eisenberg was born on 1983. His film credits include The Squid and the Whale, The Social Network, Now You See Me, Night Moves and Batman v. Superman, as well as European titles such as The Double [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Louder than Bombs [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Joachim Trier
film profile] and Vivarium [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lorcan Finnegan
film profile]. Eisenberg’s directorial debut and an A24 title When You Finish Saving the World, premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival to glowing reviews and screened as a part of Critics' Week at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival

The 28th Sarajevo Film Festival will be held from 12-19 August.