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The Sarajevo International Film Festival has unveiled the nominees for its second annual TV awards with 17 series from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Slovenia represented across the nominees.

The local series up for awards are: Advokado, Besa 2, Block 27, Black Wedding, Strange Kind of Loves, Dolina rož, Awake, Lenin’s Park, Crazy, Confused, Normal, Underneath 2, Mrkomir I, Bad Blood, The Last Socialist Artefact, United Brothers, Killers of My Father 5, The Silence and Time of Evil.

This year, the award categories have expanded to include drama series and comedy and winners will be honored with the fest’s lauded Heart of Sarajevo award, a prize usually given to the festival’s competition winner.

The Sarajevo Film Festival established the awards for TV series last year, with the aim of promoting and showcasing the highest quality regional television series in the past 12 months to promote their international placement.

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival has unveiled its 2015 line-up which includes films representing 54 countries, 23 world premieres and 53 U.S. premieres. The U.S. premiere of Niki Caro’s McFarland USA will close out the 30th fest. Based on the 1987 true story and starring Kevin Costner and Maria Bello, the film follows novice runners from McFarland, an economically challenged town in California’s farm-rich Central Valley, as they give their all to build a cross-country team under the direction of Coach Jim White (Costner), a newcomer to their predominantly Latino high school. The unlikely band of runners overcomes the odds to forge not only a championship cross-country team but an enduring legacy as well.

The festival runs from January 27-February 7.

Below is the list of World and U.S. Premiere films followed by the list of titles by sidebar categories.

World Premieres

A Better You, USA

Directed by Matt Walsh

Cast: Brian Huskey,...

A self-acknowledged "showcase for Academy Award frontrunners," the Santa Barbara International Film Festival is often overlooked for the actual films that earn it festival status. An amalgamation of international discoveries and ’merica’s circuit highlights, the Sbiff curates a week of best-of-the-best to pair with their star-praising. The 2015 edition offers another expansive selection, bookended by two films that aren’t on any radars just yet. Sbiff will open with "Desert Dancer," producer Richard Raymond’s directorial debut. Starring Reece Ritchie and Frieda Pinto, the drama follows a group of friends who wave off the harsh political climate of Iran’s 2009 presidential election in favor of forming a dance team, picking up moves from Michael Jackson, Gene Kelly and Rudolf Nureyev thanks to the magic of YouTube. The festival will close with "McFarland, USA," starring Kevin Costner and Maria Bello. Telling the 1987 true story of a Latino high school’s underdog cross-country team,...

The Enemy Trailer has premiered. Dejan Zecevic‘s The Enemy / Neprijatelj (2011) stars Aleksandar Stojkovic, Vuk Kostic, Tihomir Stanic, Ljubomir Bandovic, and Marija Pikic. The Enemy‘s plot synopsis: “The year is 1995. A small engineering squad has welcomed Dayton Agreement in mountains, not far from the ruins of a local factory that was destroyed in combat. In that strange atmosphere, the squad finds a walled-in basement in ruins of the factory – and in it a man, which quietly sits behind a desk, next to an ashtray filled with cigarette buds, as if he was actually waiting for them. Pandora’s Box is opening…” This film certainly seems to have some tricks up its sleeve if this movie trailer is any indication. The parts where one of the characters says whom he believes the walled-in-man to be and that “he created this world” are two of my favorite moments. The film looks well-shot as well.

Zillion Film

Returning to his childhood home in Belgrade after a dozen years of living abroad, a young man discovers nothing has changed -- and everything has changed -- in Oleg Novkovic's quietly reflective and keenly perceptive Tomorrow Morning (Sutra Ujutru).

Screened at the recent Palm Springs International Film Festival, Serbia's foreign-language Oscar submission serves as a notable first screenplay for acclaimed poet and playwright Milena Markovic, and it knows no geographical boundaries when it comes to its appraisal of the complex bonds of friendship and family.

After spending the past 12 years of his life living and working in Canada, Nele (Uliks Fehmiu) has come back home for his wedding, but what was supposed to be a joyful reunion with his parents and his old buddies gets considerably more complicated as the prodigal son realizes he'd left a lot of emotional baggage behind.

The bulk of it belongs to Sasha (Nada Sargin), his old girlfriend who still carries a formidable torch when she's not hoisting too many drinks. It turns out those feelings remain quite mutual, which puts a serious damper on Nele's nuptials.

Novkovic mines beautifully etched performances from his ensemble, especially from moody Sargin and Radmila Tomovic as Ceca, another of Nele's former flames (our boy got around), who eventually settled for amiable but immature Bure (Ljubomir Bandovic).

Like the healing country in which they live, Tomorrow Morning shows a group of lives in transition. But underneath the unspoken resentments stemming from the pang of missed opportunities, there's still a glint of optimism lurking in that bleak landscape.