Ena Sendijarević

Ena Sendijarević (born 1987) is a Bosnian-Dutch filmmaker and screenwriter known for her distinctive blend of surrealism, satire, and sharp social commentary and exploration of themes such as power, identity, sexuality and migration. Her notable works include Import, which premiered at the Cannes Directors' Fortnight; Take Me Somewhere Nice (2019), winner of the Heart of Sarajevo Award for Best Feature Film; and Sweet Dreams (2023), a satirical exploration of Dutch colonialism that premiered to critical acclaim.

She is sometimes also credited as Ena Sendijarevic (without the diacritic) in international contexts.

Early life and education

Sendijarević was born in 1987 in Odžak, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Later she moved with her family to Modriča, where she remained until the beginning of the Bosnian War. She studied media and culture at the University of Amsterdam and the Freie Universität Berlin. In 2014, she graduated with a degree in screenwriting and directing from the Netherlands Film Academy.

Career

In 2013, Sendijarević wrote and directed her first short film, Reizigers in de Nacht (Travellers in the Night). The film was selected for the VERS Award and won the VEVAM Go Short Award for Best Dutch Short at the Go Short International Short Film Festival 2014. She directed the short film Fernweh (2014), which premiered at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.

Sendijarević's 2016 short film, Import, premiered at the Cannes Directors' Fortnight. The film tells the story of a Bosnian refugee family in the Netherlands and its experience of integrating.

Sendijarević's debut feature film, Take Me Somewhere Nice (2019), premiered in the Tiger Competition of the 48th International Film Festival Rotterdam, where it won a Special Jury Award for an extraordinary artistic achievement (a prize worth €10,000). It won the prize for Best Feature Film at the Sarajevo Film Festival (the Heart of Sarajevo award) and at the Seoul International Women's Film Festival.

In 2023, her film Sweet Dreams was selected as opening film of Netherlands Film Festival where it won six Golden Calf Awards.

On December 20, 2024, it was announced that Sendijarevic's English-language debut The Possessed has been greenlit for a 2026 shoot. The film is described as a "dark, surrealist exploration of a love triangle between two women fleeing the European witch hunts and the man who becomes their captive."

In 2025, Sendijarević was appointed the jury member at the 31st Sarajevo Film Festival for Competition Programme – Feature Film.

Filmography

Year Title Director/ Writer Notes 2013 Traveler in the Night Director and writer 2014 Fernweh 2016 Import Premiered at Cannes' Directors' Fortnight 2023 Sweet Dreams Director and writer NFF opening film

Accolades