Italian director Paolo Sorrentino will be honored at the 31st Sarajevo Film Festival with the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo award for “his outstanding contribution to the art of cinema”. The festival will also present a complete retrospective of his films as part of the “Tribute to” program; and Sorrentino will hold a Masterclass and share his thoughts on contemporary art in a conversation with the audience. The festival will be held from August 15th to 22nd, 2025.
“I am deeply honored to receive this prestigious recognition and grateful for the attention given to my filmography. I look forward to being with you in Sarajevo. Thank you from the bottom of my heart,” said Sorrentino.
“Paolo Sorrentino managed to do what every filmmaker dreams of – he left a global impact through local, personal stories. With visually luxurious, emotionally filled and intellectually insightful style, he won the hearts of audiences around the world, who saw his characters, no matter how eccentric or withdrawn, as a mirror of our world, often absurd, sometimes cruel, but always deeply human. The Honorary Heart of Sarajevo is a recognition of the great beauty that he gave us with his films,” said Jovan Marjanović, Director of the Sarajevo Film Festival.
Paolo Sorrentin’s first full-length feature film One Man Up made its premiere at Venice Film Festival. He went on to direct The Consequences of Love and The Family Friend, both screened in competition for the Palme d’Or in Cannes, as well as Il Divo, which won the Jury Prize in 2008. He returned in competition at the Cannes Festival in 2011 with This Must be the Place, and in 2013 with The Great Beauty, which won the Academy Award, the Golden Globe and the BAFTA Award for the best Foreign Language Film, as well as three EFA Awards.
His next film Youth also premiered in competition at Cannes, going on to receive three EFA Awards, an Academy Award nomination and two Golden Globe nominations.
In 2021 he wrote and directed the The Hand of God, nominated at the 2022 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, winner of the Leone d’Argento Grand Jury Prize and the Marcello Mastroianni Award at the 78th Venice International Film Festival, also winner of 5 David di Donatello including Best Film and Best Director and 4 Nastri d’argento 2022 including Best Film.
In 2024 he wrote and directed Parthenope, presented in competition at Cannes and winner of the Biglietto D’oro among the most viewed films of the year.