Oliver Stone arrived in Sarajevo, meeting with SFF audience

Oliver Stone, a multiple Oscar award winner, has arrived in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he will tonight receive the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo for his outstanding contribution to film art.

Stone will receive his 61st award in his career, which began in 1971, tonight at the 23rd Sarajevo Film Festival.

He has directed feature films, short films, documentaries, and has exposed controversial historical figures and events, often in a controversial manner, but has always remained true to himself. He is also known for his passionate defense of his views and films.

In a career spanning more than four decades, Stone has directed more than 20 films, and is best known for his works Platoon (1986), Born on the Fourth of July (1989), JFK (1991), and Natural Born Killers (1994).

He was born on September 15, 1946, in New York, and in 1965 he wrote “A Child’s Dream”, an autobiographical novel about his own youth, published by St. Martin’s Press in 1997. He served in the US Army and fought in Vietnam as an infantryman in 1967 and 1968, for which he was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster.

Upon his return from Vietnam, he continued his studies at New York University Film School, where he graduated in 1971. He worked as a deckhand on merchant marine ships, and as a New York taxi driver, advertising salesman, production assistant, and courier.

Today, he is one of the most famous and respected directors in the world. 

(N1)