After four years long siege of Sarajevo, and with an intention to recreate civil society of the City, the  Sarajevo Film Festival was founded in 1995. Today, the Sarajevo Film Festival represents the main meeting place for all regional producers and authors and is recognized by film professionals from all over the world as the pinnacle point for networking for all wishing to learn more about the possibilities this region has to offer.

The Sarajevo Film Festival presents a wide variety of films from is the region of Southeast Europe. The festival programme is divided into the following sections:

Competition Program (features, shorts and documentaries) is accredited by FIAPF-a as a specialised program for feature and documentaries films from Southeast Europe.
Feature films not competing for an award at the Festival are screened in the In Focus, which takes as its goal the presentation of the best films produced in the region during a particular year
Panorama attempts to bridge avant-garde and mainstream films with exceptional narrative films. Invited directors’ range from debuting filmmakers to established veterans.
New Currents Programme includes, above all, works by authors who break the rules of film as a medium and who test the limits of viewing.
Tribute to... presents retrospectives of authors whose uncompromising creative outlooks brought down many taboos in film and society alikeand attracted great attention of both the audiences and the media.
!hej Open Air Cinema offers its viewers first class film productions, satisfying the tastes of even the most discriminating film lovers.
The Children's Programme aids the education of our youngest audiences and installs a love for films to our future generations.
Movies from TeenArena are competing for the Best Teen Film Award granted by ten young members of the Jury and the audience.