The seventh Al Jazeera Balkans Documentary Film Festival concluded with an awards ceremony and a special screening of Al-Shifa Hospital: The Crimes They Tried to Bury. This year’s festival, held at the Bosnian Cultural Center in Sarajevo, saw unprecedented success, with all screenings selling out in advance and an audience so eager that extra chairs were brought in to accommodate the overflow.
Festival director Edhem Fočo celebrated this success, stating that the seventh edition had exceeded expectations. The international jury, comprising esteemed filmmakers and journalists, awarded the AJB DOC Main Award to Luka Beradze’s Smiling Georgia. The film, praised for its poetic exploration of political deceit and the abandonment of ordinary citizens, captured the struggles of those denied access to basic healthcare.
The Al Jazeera Balkans Program Jury Award went to Holy Redemption, a documentary by José Carlos Soares, Tanju Şahin, and Aslıhan Eker Çakmak. The film confronts Israel’s ongoing displacement of Palestinians, exposing colonial strategies and systemic injustices in a gripping, journalistic style.
In addition to the film screenings, the festival featured discussions on pressing social issues, including a panel on violence against women, and the third edition of Al Jazeera Documentary Industry Days, where 29 global projects competed for co-production opportunities.
