.Tanović's 2001 debut feature NO MAN'S LAND received over 40 international awards, making it one of the most awarded first feature films in history. Set in the midst of the Bosnian war in 1993, NO MAN'S LAND won the Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, as well as Best Script prizes at the Cannes Film Festival and European Film Awards.

 

Tanović has made two other films about war and its consequences. CIRKUS COLUMBIA is set in the period just before the conflict reaches his native Bosnia & Herzegovina, and the English-language TRIAGE, starring Colin Farrell, dealt with post-war trauma.

 

Tanović was born in 1969 in Zenica, Bosnia&Herzegovina, and raised in Sarajevo where he studied film directing at Academy of Perfoming Arts Sarajevo. When Sarajevo fell under siege, he spent two years on the frontline filming for the army. The material that Tanovic and his colleagues produced on these dangerous missions has been seen in many films and news reports about the Bosnian war. In 1994, Tanovic emigrated to Belgium to continue his film studies at INSAS film school and he began making shorts and documentaries.

 

In 2005, Tanović made the French-language feature HELL (L´ENFER), from a script co-written by the late Krzysztof Kieslowski. The film starred many of France's finest actors, including Emmanuelle Beart, Karin Viard, Marie Gillain, Guillaume Canet, Jacques Gamblin, Jacques Perrin, Carole Bouquet and Jean Rochefort.

 

His last film AN EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF AN IRON PICKER had its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it won two Silver Bears – for film and Best Actor, Nazif Mujić, as well as a Special Mention by the Ecumenical Jury.