The Telemach Youth Film Festival Sarajevo is the largest and most significant festival of short professional films in Southeast Europe. By putting young amateur and professional filmmakers in the spotlight and creating a platform that aims to network and develop young film authors, OFF has positioned itself as a unique and indispensable cultural, tourist, and film event throughout Europe. In its program, OFF showcases an average of 70 films each year in three categories of feature films and three categories of short films. The festival organizes a variety of events, including musical performances, a co-production market, meetings with distributors, the OFF Talents program, and educational masterclass workshops. Additionally, it hosts a youth jury through the OFF Youth Experience program, along with a series of conferences and receptions connecting new, young, and experienced professionals, sponsors, distributors, and representatives from political, public life, and the industry, contributing to the development of film art and cultural tourism. Telemach OFF takes place at five locations throughout the city of Sarajevo, attracting around 17,000 visitors and generating over 1,000 overnight stays in five days, making it one of the most significant cultural and tourist projects in the city. With distinguished guests, and young actors from Netflix, Amazon Prime, and HBO Max, OFF is the second largest and most important film festival in Bosnia and Herzegovina after the Sarajevo Film Festival (SFF), where such events attract a large number of domestic and foreign guests and audiences. This approach is unique in reaching out to new generations with the aim of educating and promoting the viewing of short films and, more broadly, festival film titles. OFF focuses on new ideas and people and does not hesitate to directly address and emphasize topics that are often overlooked, all in the name of the youth.
