Sarajevo to welcome a Hollywood star: Woody Harrelson will be awarded Honorary Heart of Sarajevo

As one of the most acclaimed and versatile actors of his generation, with a career spanning film, television and theatre, Harrelson has earned three Academy Award nominations, including Best Actor for The People vs. Larry Flynt and Best Supporting Actor for The Messenger and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and starred in Ruben Östlund's Palme d'Or winner Triangle of Sadness. 

“Woody Harrelson is one of those actors you believe in even in the most improbable roles, while at the same time you can easily imagine him as someone you might spend time with every day. That remarkable ease of performance is, in fact, one of the hardest qualities to achieve on screen, yet he delivers it film after film. His talent, charisma, and boldness serve as an inspiration to many future generations. It is our great honor to present him with the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo,” said Jovan Marjanović, Director of the Sarajevo Film Festival. 

At the 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival, Michael Winterbottom's 1997 film Welcome to Sarajevo, which premiered at Cannes and was also screened at the 3rd Sarajevo Film Festival later that year, will be shown. Harrelson stars in one of the film’s leading roles. The film is a powerful examination of the war in Bosnia in the mid-1990s and the role of journalists in its media coverage. It is based on journalist Michael Nicholson's book Natasha's Story. The screening will take place at the Coca-Cola Open Air Cinema as part of the Open Air programme. 

He next leads Apple TV's Brothers alongside Matthew McConaughey, premiering September 23, and stars opposite Kristen Stewart in Quentin Dupieux's Full Phil, which premiered at Cannes this year. He recently wrapped Netflix's The Cackling of the Dodos with Sam Rockwell and is producing a documentary on Austin's iconic Armadillo World Headquarters. 

Harrelson wrote, directed and starred in Lost in London, the first feature film shot in a single continuous take and broadcast live to theaters. 

An Emmy Award winner for his iconic portrayal of Woody Boyd on Cheers, his television credits also include True Detective and The White House Plumbers. He has also distinguished himself on stage as an actor, writer and director, starring in the Broadway revival of The Rainmaker, the West End's On An Average Day and Night of the Iguana, and directing his own off Broadway production Bullet for Adolf, which he cowrote with Frankie Hyman. 

Across four decades and every medium, Harrelson has cemented his place as one of the industry's most enduring performers. 

The 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival will take place from 14 to 21 August 2026.