The motion picture Ave of Bulgarian movie director, Konstantin Bojanov, received the special jury award at the 17th edition of the Sarajevo Film Festival.

SFF was held in the Bosnian capital from July 22 to July 30.

The short film Take Two of Bulgarian Nadezhda Koseva received the special mention in the short film category.

The Heart of Sarajevo Award for Best Film went to BREATHING of Director Karl Markovics , Austria, and the Heart of Sarajevo Award for Best Short Film went to MEZZANINE of Director Dalibor Matanic from Croatia.

The Heart of Sarajevo Award for Best Actress was bestowed to Ada Condeescu (LOVERBOY) from Romania and the one for Best Actor – to Thomas Schubert (BREATHING) from Austria.

The Honorary Heart of Sarajevo was also presented to actress Angelina Jolie for her humanitarian work.

A total of seven Bulgarian films participated in SFF.

Four Bulgarian films were featured on SFF's selection of competitive films, including "Ave," and the documentaries "Manchester United from Svishtov" by Stefan Valdobrev, "The Rules of Single Life", a Finnish-Bulgarian co-production by Tonislav Hristov, as well as the short film "Take Two."

"Shelter" by Dragomir Sholev, which took the grand prix at Bulgaria's 15th Sofia Film Festival and was named Best Feature Film for 2010 by the Bulgarian Film Academy, and "The Isle" directed by Kamen Kalev, which premiered at the special Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival, were included in the "In Focus" program and did not compete for a prize at SFF 2011.This part of the program presents the best films in the region for the past year.

The seventh Bulgarian title, "Chromones", an animated short film by Rayna Atanasova and Ina Nikolova, was not part of the competitive program either. "Chromones" won the Sofia Short Challenge at Sofia Film Fest 2011.

The festival was founded in 1995 with a view to recreate civil society in the city plagued by a four-year siege.

It is held on an annual basis in end-July and aims to present important and innovative films of high artistic value made throughout the world.

The Sarajevo Film Festival Competition program is accredited by FIAPF (F?d?ration Internationale des Associations de Producteurs de Films) as a Competitive Specialized Festival.

The main focus is the region of Southeast Europe (Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, FYR Macedonia, Malta, Monte Negro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey, UNMI Kosovo) and its filmmakers which compete in Feature, Short and Documentary film section.