Sandra Wollner is having a pretty thrilling — if not a little exhausting — 2026.
Her third feature film, Everytime, premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in May — her first project to hit the Croisette, which she talked about in depth at the time. “It was quite overwhelming, I have to say,” the Austrian filmmaker laughs to The Hollywood Reporter three months later. “To get this platform and such a big audience — overwhelming in a good way.”
Now, Everytime, screening in competition at the 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival, is venturing into a world beyond Cannes. Led by Birgit Minichmayrhe, the film follows a mother, her young daughter and a teenage boy as they travel to Tenerife in a bid to cope with the tragic death of their eldest daughter and sister. Wollner embraces her knack for surrealism as the piece bends time, past and present blurring. THR critic Jordan Mintzer said the filmmaker is talented at “injecting genuine unease into ordinary events, whether it’s an eerie stroll through the streets of Berlin [or] a text message sent to a deceased person.”
In Sarajevo, Wollner’s partner and one-year-old daughter in tow, she has been paying close attention to the reaction of the locals. “The festival being founded during the siege in 1995, I think that’s very powerful,” she continues to THR. “And you can still feel something of that history here. I felt it yesterday when I had a radio interview. Just from some of the questions, you could get the sense that there might be a different way of approaching trauma or loss here, simply in the way people talked about the film.”
From the Bosnian capital’s National Theatre, Wollner discusses taking Everytime on the festival circuit. She talks about the doors that these festival slots can open for a filmmaker of her calibre, spotlighting grief, blame and memory in her filmography, and why she is staying realistic about the future of European cinema: “What I hope we protect in Europe is the possibility of making films that don’t have to prove their commercial value before they exist.”
How big was it for you to be in Cannes with only your third feature film?
That was, of course, big. I mean, if you’re very pragmatic, it’s just the biggest festival. At least people say so. And it was quite overwhelming, I have to say, to get this platform and such a big audience — overwhelming in a good way. I was already excited that we were invited, and then you don’t really expect anything after that. I certainly didn’t expect such great feedback.
Wherever you are, it’s still kind of miraculous when you see your film through other people, when you see it with an audience. And it just felt like a very appreciative audience. In the cinema with so many people in Cannes, it was a very emotional experience. Some things I felt for the very first time — because when you’re working on things, you’re working on technical stuff all the time. You still feel the flow, but not the emotion, not after seeing it so many times. But then suddenly you have people behind you gasping or being in shock or just being very silent.
So it’s safe to say you were pleased by the reaction in Cannes.
(Laughs.) I was very pleased with the reaction.
You’re on the festival circuit with Everytime now. We’re in Sarajevo. Is it just as meaningful to be asked to be here?
To be here and then also get invited into the competition, I honestly felt very appreciated. Yesterday, we had our premiere, and what the head programmer Elma Tataragić said about the film and how she connected it to my previous films made me feel an immense appreciation for my work. I very much value that.
But being here with nine other films — honestly, I have not seen anything! Being back at work and being here with a kid, it’s a bit tricky to see anything right now.
‘Everytime’
Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival
You’re with your child?
She’s one, so the last year was quite intense with finishing the film. She’s here with me and my partner, and the festival also made that possible. And they made it possible for our cast to come. Birgit Minichmayr would have loved to come, but she’s on a shoot right now. Everyone was super excited. Lotte Shirin Keiling could come with her parents, and our main actor Tristán López also brought his mom and a friend of his mom. Everyone was like, “Oh my god!”
A family affair!
Yeah, and I’ve never been here. I have some friends who come here regularly and who really love it, and I can totally see why.
A very cool origin story as well.
I mean, the festival being founded during the siege in 1995, I think that’s very powerful, and you can still feel something of that history here. I felt it yesterday when I had a radio interview. Just from some of the questions, you could get the sense that there might be a different way of approaching trauma or loss here, simply in the way people talked about the film. I did feel there was a different perception, at least from what I understood through the translation during the interview. People asked, “Is Everytime a memorial for those we lost?”. Since the film is essentially a family drama, this kind of question doesn’t get asked in Germany or Austria, where I’m from.
What can mid-tier festivals like Sarajevo, Karlovy Vary, Locarno, San Sebastian do for films like yours?
I haven’t been to too many festivals. My second film did travel, but then Covid happened. My first film started in Hof, a prestigious little festival in Germany, or at least it used to be. For me it opened some doors, particularly with programmers and film critics who saw it there.
At nearly every festival, there is always the feeling that it opens something up — just the fact that other people see your film, some of them really take it in and spread the word about it. And all of these festivals can do that for your film, in ways that might turn out to be very meaningful even many years down the road.
Did you get to talk with people at the premiere here in Sarajevo about how the film resonated?
We had a Q&A. It was more like a Q&A and press conference in one. It was actually quite nice that there were also locals and not just journalists or festival insiders. People seemed to like it — those who stayed for the Q&A at least. I guess there was no one staying to tell me they didn’t like it. (Laughs.) But yeah, I felt the response in general was very appreciative, again.
There’s a lot that comes up in Everytime — in particular grief and blame. What did you find the audience was drawn to?
I feel it’s grief. I mean, we’re talking about the biggest loss that’s imaginable, losing a child. But still, everyone might have experienced a loss of some family member or friend at some point, so they can relate. And like in Cannes, people came up afterwards to tell us about their loss, and perhaps their own version of grief, which is a very strange emotional process that can manifest in so many ways.
I feel that there are people who can genuinely relate to the topic. And then, of course, there are people who love the formal idea of the film, the way it takes you places you might never expect it to. I do feel it has been the same everywhere. It doesn’t differ from festival to festival, so far.
Are those themes something that you want to keep as a running thread through your filmography?
They run through my last three films in a way: memory and imagination. But I think one has to be careful not to get too self-reflective, you know? I did start to write something which is more or less set in prehistoric times, about how ghosts came into the world. A very different setting. Very different. But let‘s see, I need some time. I really have to fall in love with something again to be able to go through with it for five or six years because, in the end, that’s what it’s gonna take.
Are there any Hollywood names that you would love to work with in the future?
I honestly believe that it really depends on the project. I would never be someone to knock on a door just because of a name, even though maybe that’s sometimes smart. But I really try to understand who’s the perfect fit for the part.
It’s hard to make films right now. All over the world, but very much in Europe.
It’s hard, and I feel very privileged that we had luck with the last two films, which didn’t have a lot of money. The first one was just a student project. The second one was my graduation film, but we still got some funding and it worked out. You might say I was lucky, but this kind of cultural funding is something we absolutely have to protect.
I don’t know if it’s so much easier in the U.S., where you get [private] money and you have to be really struggling and bouncing from [financier to financier] all the time. I don’t know whether this is an easier path than in Europe.
Do you feel optimistic about the future of European film?
I don’t know. I have to be realistic. You can see that there is pressure on public funding everywhere. But I don’t think culture is an “added value,” a kind of luxury item. It’s part of how a society understands itself.
What I hope we protect in Europe is the possibility of making films that don’t have to prove their commercial value before they exist. My own films could probably not have been made in a purely market-driven system. And I think losing that would mean losing a certain kind of cinema altogether.
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