Diego Luna Sarajevo award set for 2026 film festival
Sarajevo Film Festival will honor Diego Luna, who will present Ashes and give a masterclass at the August event.
By Poppy Nakagawa · Culture Writer
3 min read
The Diego Luna Sarajevo award is on the 2026 festival calendar: the Mexican actor, director and producer is set to receive the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo at the 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival.
The award recognizes Luna’s career and his contribution to world cinema, according to the festival. He will attend the Bosnian event to present Ashes, his latest feature as director, after its premiere at Cannes earlier this year.
Luna will also take part in a masterclass for emerging filmmakers, industry professionals and festival audiences, sharing views drawn from his work across film, television and theater.
What is Diego Luna receiving in Sarajevo?
The Honorary Heart of Sarajevo is a Sarajevo Film Festival honor given in recognition of a film artist’s body of work and impact on cinema. Luna is receiving it for a career that has moved between Mexican cinema, Hollywood studio projects, streaming television and directing.
Luna’s international breakthrough came with Alfonso Cuarón’s 2001 film Y tu mamá también, which helped establish him as one of Mexico’s leading screen actors. His later collaborators have included Steven Spielberg, David Trueba, Gus Van Sant, Harmony Korine and Agustín Díaz Yanes.
More recently, Luna starred in and executive produced the Disney+ series Andor. His work across the show’s two seasons brought him two Golden Globe nominations and two Critics’ Choice Award nominations, while the series received eight Emmy nominations for its first season and 14 for its second, including Outstanding Drama Series.
Luna also received two Norman Felton Award nominations with his producing team at the Producers Guild of America Awards for Andor.
His recent and upcoming screen work includes Netflix’s México 86, where he also serves as an executive producer, the thriller Eleven Days and Disney’s live-action adaptation of Tangled. His other credits include Bill Condon’s Kiss of the Spider Woman, La Máquina with Gael García Bernal, Netflix’s Narcos: México, Star Wars: Rogue One and Bread & Circus.
As a director, Luna made his debut with the 2007 documentary J.C. Chávez. His first fiction feature, Abel, won the Horizontes Latinos Award at the San Sebastián International Film Festival and a Mexican Academy Award for Best Screenplay, which he co-wrote. He later directed Mr. Pig, which premiered at Sundance.
Beyond production and performance, Luna co-founded Ambulante in 2005, a traveling documentary film festival created to encourage cultural exchange. The project was founded with García Bernal, Pablo Cruz, Elena Fortes and El Día Después, a Mexico City-based NGO focused on civic engagement and social change.
Jovan Marjanović, director of the Sarajevo Film Festival, said Luna first won festival hearts “a quarter of a century ago” with Y tu mamá también, and praised his movement from Hollywood productions to intimate stories tied to Latin American culture.
“Through his exceptional body of work, Diego Luna has left a profound mark on contemporary cinema, and it is our great honor to present him with the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo,” Marjanović said.
Luna said he has wanted to visit Sarajevo for many years and has heard colleagues speak warmly about the festival. “I feel honored with the recognition of my work and very excited to share Ashes with the audience,” he said.
The 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival is scheduled to run from August 14 to 21, 2026.
This story draws on original reporting from Deadline.