Stars Head for Sarajevo's 20th Film Festival

The Bosnian capital is getting ready to roll out the red carpet for the 20th Sarajevo Film Festival, which starts on August 15 and lasts nine days.

Around 250 films from 60 countries will be screened for thousands of visitors who will be coming from all over the region and beyond.

“Each year, the Sarajevo Film Festival is not only becoming better in terms of the number of films shown but also in terms of their quality,” Mirsad Purivatra, director of the festival, said.

“This year's festival will be the year when we sum up 20 years of our work and turn new pages,” he added.

The main star this year will be Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal who will be present at the screening of "Amores Perros" ["Love's A Bitch"], directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu.

Among the new newer films that will be shown at the festival are Bridges of Sarajevo, which is the work of a group of directors.

The management also announced a number of international guests including Oscar winners and others who received film awards in Cannes, Berlin or Venice.

Among them will be the Oscar-winning director of "The Artist", Michel Hazanavicius, whose new film "The Search," will be shown at the festival.

Bosnian director Jasmila Zbanic will be presenting her film "Otok Ljubavi" ["Love Island"], which will be screened in the open-air cinema.

Chinese director Yi'nan Diao and the actress Lun Mei Gwei will also be guests at the festival with their film "Bai ri yan huo" ["Black Coal, Thin Ice"], which won both the Golden and Silver Bear awards in Berlin.

The president of the main jury will be Hungarian film director Bela Tarr, who won last year's...