Following the success at the prestigious Berlinale Film Festival earlier this year by winning the Jury’s Special Mention Award for outstanding achievement of the film Snow for Water, Sarajevo Film Academy will participate at the upcoming Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF). Film Regained Memory, directed by SFA graduate student Stijn Bouma will have its world premiere at the KVIFF, within the Future Frames Program: Ten Student Directors to Follow.

Known as a hub for young cinema and an important forum for the film industry, KVIFF is regarded as one of the key international industry events. Film Regained memory, produced in 2017 by Sarajevo Film Academy and Alchemic Film from the Netherlands is Stijn’s graduation film. 

Future Frames Program: Ten Student Directors to Follow highlights new European cinema and the promising young directing talent behind it. SFA graduate Stijn Bouma is one of ten selected outstanding film students and graduates from film schools throughout Europe who will participate in this tailor-made program, which will ease their way into the international film scene. Apart from presenting his film, talented director Stijn will take part in an exclusive masterclass with an internationally renowned filmmaker and have industry meetings with festival programmers, sales agents, producers, film funders and other important industry professionals. The event will take place 1 – 4 July 2018.

Film Regained Memory tells the story of Amir, a widower who searches Sarajevo for memories of his wife. Diving into the past, he forgets he also has responsibilities towards his young daughter. Based around a simple plot, the film explores topics of remembering, traumas and the responsibility towards new generations. The film cast are Salih Palo, Maja Izetbegović, Izudin Bajrović and Amna Bajrić in the main roles. The film’s production took place in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Stijn's previous film Lejla, produced by the Sarajevo Film Academy and Alchemic Film, premiered in 2017 in the official Cinéfondation selection of the Cannes Film Festival. It was the second year in a row that a project of Sarajevo Film Academy was selected in Cinéfondation and Lejla was the only Bosnian film in an official Cannes selection.