Gault&Millau Croatia at the 29th Sarajevo Film Festival: chef Deni Srdoč prepared an exclusive dinner for the Best TV Series Awarded, and the Tourist Board of Kvarner premiered its promo film

How to put together Kvarner region, the mountains and the city of Sarajevo in a festive dinner? To that question of host Tarik Filipović, chef Deni Srdoč answered: "I brought my heart from Kvarner, our porcini mushrooms from the mountains, and the meat - is from Sarajevo.” Along with beef fillet and porcini mushrooms, cucumbers, celery, potatoes, cream cheese, hazelnuts and lemons, were the main ingredients used by chef Srdoč, who prepared an exclusive dinner at the Heart of Sarajevo award ceremony for TV series at the 29th Sarajevo Film Festival. The dinner at Hotel Hills was organized in collaboration with Gault&Millau Croatia and the Tourist Board of Kvarner, which premiered its “Make Your Own Movie” - promo film on the diversity potential of this region.

The evening was enjoyed by 150 guests, actors, directors, screenwriters and producers of the best TV series from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, North Macedonia and Kosovo, who were nominated for awards in 14 categories. In the category of drama TV series, "Hollow" was declared the best, Feđa Štukan was the best leading actor, Ida Keškić and Boris Ler were awarded for the best supporting roles, Danis Tanović and Aida Begić won the award for best directors, and the best screenplay for the episode of drama, the Hollow team also won: Danis Tanović, Amra Bakšić Čamo, Nikola Kuprešanin and Adnan Lugonić. The Heart of Sarajevo for the best actress in a drama series, Vera, was won by Jovana Stojiljković. Six Hearts of Sarajevo in the comedy category was won by the TV series "Mom and Dad are playing war 2": They are the best comedy, Gordan Kičić is the best director, the best leading actors in the comedy are Nina Janković and Gordan Kičić, who together with Gvozden Đurić and Marko Manojlović also won the award for the best comedy screenplay. Aleksej Bjelogrlić and Denis Murić won the Rising Star awards.

“Make Your Own Movie” - the promotional film of the Tourist Board of Kvarner had its world premiere in Sarajevo and was a perfect match for the award ceremony. He couldn't have had a better but stricter audience that evening, but Renata Vincek, project manager of TZ Kvarner, in Sarajevo received only compliments on the film. The Kvarner Tourist Board is a candidate for the title European Gastronomy Region 2026. Along with natural beauty, architecture, heritage, the combination of the sea and Gorski Kotar mountains, gastronomy is its strongest asset. This was confirmed by the best chef of Kvarner, Deni Srdoč, who was a guest chef at the Sarajevo Film Festival - the largest film festival in Southeast Europe.

The dinner started with cold appetizers: a roll of beef tartare, truffle hollandaise, a cheese cream and chives emulsion, as well as cucumber tartare wrapped in marinated cucumber with cream cheese. The main dishes followed: steak, potato pavé, porcini duxelle and jus, as well as a celery roll filled with caramelised celery and hazelnut cream, veggie jus and porcini duxelle. Dessert Greetings from Kvarner - lemon and poppy seed cake - rounded off the gastronomic experience, accompanied by selected wines from the Saints Hills winery. Deni Srdoč is the chef and owner of the Nebo restaurant in the Hilton Costabella hotel in Rijeka, the best-rated restaurant in Kvarner by the Gault&Millau Croatia guide (4 toque, 17/20 points). Željko Vukičević, chef at Srdoč's Hidden Wine Bistro in Rijeka, as well as the Hotel Hills team helped him prepare the dinner in Sarajevo. After the official part of the Heart of Sarajevo ceremony, the young chefs joined the other guests at a party organized by Porsche Center Sarajevo.