Sanja Mitrovic
Born in Zrenjanin (Former Yugoslavia) and currently based in Brussels, Sanja Mitrović is a theatre director, performer, writer and lecturer. She graduated in Japanese language and literature from the Belgrade University, and in Physical Theatre studies from the Amsterdam University of the Arts.
Mitrović gained recognition for a practice marked by compassion, sharp analysis and an urgency to engage with the social and political reality. International media have called her "new star of European theatre" (taz), with works which successfully turn "hot-button issues into convincing theatre" (New York Times) and are "filled to the brim with playfulness, skill, imaginative twists and turns, and a triumph of talent and precision" (Radio Belgrade).
Mitrović's works have been commissioned, coproduced and presented at international festivals and theatres, including Schaubühne (Berlin), Centre Dramatique National Nanterre-Amandiers (Nanterre), Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels), Wiener Festwochen and Tanzquartier (Vienna), BITEF Theatre (Belgrade), Theater Spektakel (Zürich), SPRING Performing Arts Festival (Utrecht), European Capital of Culture (Guimarães, Portugal), Festival Reims Scenes d'Europe and La Comédie de Reims (Reims), and Teatro Nacional São João (Porto).
In 2010 Mitrović was awarded the BNG Nieuwe Theatermakers Prijs by Theatre Instituut Nederland for Will You Ever Be Happy Again?, which premiered in 2008 at the BITEF Festival in Belgrade, toured internationally and was nominated for Prix D'Jardin Europe, also in 2010. Between 2017 and 2019 she was artist-in-resident at Centre Dramatique National Orleans in France.
In 2019 she was invited as a guest director to work with the ensemble of Schaubühne in Berlin, one of Germany’s leading theatres, which resulted in a critically acclaimed production Danke Deutschland – Cảm ơn nước Đức. In 2021 Mitrović directed and performed in Demeter Calling, her second co-production with the Royal Flemish Theatre in Brussels.
In 2023 she wrote Unter Grund and directed it for the ensemble at Schauspiel Dortmund. In the same year she earned Doctor in Arts degree from Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Royal Institute for Theatre, Cinema and Sound.
In 2024, Mitrović directs the play Vanishing, recipient of the 2021 Marin Držić Prize for the best theatre play. Written by Croatian writer Tomislav Zajec, staged with the ensemble of one of the leading theaters in Serbia and the Balkans, Atelje 212 in Belgrade.
