[custom_adv] Oscar-winning filmmaker Asghar Farhadi will head the competition jury for the 24th Sarajevo Film Festival, the festival announced Tuesday. The Iranian director is fresh off the world premiere of his latest film, “Everybody Knows,” as the opener of the Cannes Film Festival earlier this month. Mike Goddridge, Judita Franković Brdar, Mirsad Purivatra, Asghar Farhadi [custom_adv] “Everybody Knows” will also screen in Sarajevo as part of the festival’s Open Air program. The film stars Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem. [custom_adv] Last year’s Sarajevo Film Festival saw Georgian director Ana Urushadze’s “Scary Mother” take home the festival’s top prize, the Heart of Sarajevo, for best feature film, which includes a €16,000 ($18,500) financial award. The five-person jury was presided over by Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco. [custom_adv] Director and screenwriter Asghar Farhadi will preside this year over the Jury of the SFF’s "Competition Programme - Feature Film." [custom_adv] Farhadi won his first Oscar for best foreign-language film for his 2011 drama “A Separation.” He triumphed again, in the same category, with 2016’s “The Salesman.”As per tradition, the festival had two openings: one in the National Theatre for guests and press, and another, taking place half an hour later at the 3,000-seat Open Air, for public attendees. [custom_adv] The ceremony was hosted by Kosovo-born, Sarajevo-based actor Alban Ukaj, who broke out internationally last year with a role in Blerta Zeqiri’s Tallinn Black Nights title Marriage. [custom_adv] After festival director Miro Purivatra welcomed the guests and thanked them for their continued support of the festival, he invited actor Nijaz Hastor to the stage to receive an honorary Heart of Sarajevo award. Hastor is the founder of long-time festival sponsor ASA Prevent Group and non-profit Hastor Foundation, which provides scholarships to young people in Bosnia-Herzegovina. [custom_adv] Next up, festival programmer Elma Tataragić gave a brief overview of the competition programmes. The main, feature film competition includes ten films, out of which four have their world premieres at Sarajevo. [custom_adv] Purivatra then came back to the stage to announce the second honorary Heart of Sarajevo, for Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan. “Dear Nuri, it is an exceptional honour for me to award you the honorary Heart of Sarajevo. I wish you the best of health, I wish you long life, and I wish the world plenty of your unforgettable cinematic stories,” said Purivatra. [custom_adv] “Cinephiles around the world, especially those of us from the wider region of Southeast Europe, are very much looking forward to [your next films]. Your films tell the lives of us living on the so-called outskirts of Europe. They tell the stories of those closest to us: our families, the neighbours, the cities, suburbs and villages we inhabit. [custom_adv] “Your storytelling transforms them all into an arena of true hopes, anxieties and universal drama that speaks for the whole of humankind. Your stories are as real as they come. Your characters may have more flaws than virtues. Not loving them might come easier than feeling affectionate towards them, but as the real life shows us, this is exactly what makes them human.