Foreword to CineLink Talks 2020

While it is the eighteenth edition of CineLink, this one feels special – in more ways than one. First and foremost, it is unique because this is a year humankind will never forget. It will have a name, and that name will be the same the world over. I will try not to copyright it – it’s still 2020, and it ain’t over till the fat fellow sings. And, quite intentionally, I shall refuse to write or utter the word that defines this 2020.  

CineLink has been associated with my film-production work from the very beginning. At first, I was looking for answers; later came questions – questions my colleagues as well as other filmmakers and producers from this region had as well. Those questions and dilemmas found their way to our market, to our Think Tank, to CineLink Talks.  

This year, I have the feeling that I have only questions; that I do not know how to offer an answer that will still make sense tomorrow morning. I believe I am not the only one: our world has changed forever, and so has our business and our industry. Instead of working at airports, we now work in our bedrooms and our children’s playrooms, and we finalize the movies with a video link. This year, our festival opens with the world premiere of Pjer Žalica’s film FOCUS, GRANDMA. We will not watch it in the cinema, however, but on the Festival’s on-demand platform. Is this an exception or is it the new normal that we will get used to very quickly? How are we going to develop films and series? How will they reach their audiences? How do regional funds take on this new challenge? What is it like, from the position of an independent producer, to create a series for the whole world and really succeed? How do on-demand platforms cope with the growing need for content while it is much more difficult to shoot? What makes for popular content under these new circumstances? Are audience habits changing? The emergence of a crisis does not mean that another one has stopped – indeed, more often than not, it is the other way around: every new crisis saturates the previous ones, it’s just that the cracks and the debris become more apparent. How do authors from our region fight for freedom of speech, and how do they deal with political correctness? Where do we draw the line?

Not only are the ways we produce and distribute our work changing, but our approach to the creative process and finished content is changing too. In 2014, in collaboration with the Council of Europe, the Sarajevo Film Festival organised a high-profile conference on gender imbalance that resulted in the Sarajevo Declaration of Gender Equality. Two years ago, we signed the 5050x2020 Charter. The battle is nowhere near over; nevertheless, women’s voices are getting stronger. What is the legacy of cinema in the nations of the former Yugoslavia, what has changed and what is changing today from a female actor’s point of view?  

To me, it seems I could go on indefinitely. We will continue to try to answer these questions – we are speaking to people who have been with us for years; friends who, I hope, will find their safe film home and conversation space right here, this year, on CineLink Talks.

Amra Bakšić Čamo, Head of CineLink