Sanja Bestic

Sanja Bestic
Born	(1982-06-13)June 13, 1982 Belgrade, Yugoslavia
Nationality	Serbian
Occupation	Director, Producer
Years active	2000–present
Known for	Tesla, Jackie and Marilyn
Spouse(s)	Vladimir Berisavac
Children	2 (Iva and Asja)

Sanja Bestic (Serbian: Сања Бeштић, Sanja Beštić; born 13 June 1982 in Zemun, Belgrade, Serbia) is a Serbian-American director, writer and producer.

Early life

Born to Biljana Gajić Beštić, an artist, and Branislav Beštić, a soccer player in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (present day Serbia). Her younger brother, Vladimir Beštić, was a former Serbian soccer player who has since become the head coach at a prestigious soccer academy in New York City, USA. ^[1]

Sanja attended Zemun High School (Zemunska Gimnazija) while simultaneously studying at the renowned theatre studio and acting school under the direction of the highly respected theatre professor, Mika Aleksić. She pursued theatre directing at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts at University of Arts in Belgrade under the guidance of Ivana Vujić. While attending a fellowship at the Moving Academy for Performing Arts in Amsterdam, she refined her artistic coaching skills. Sanja worked with the Theater of Shadows and her move to New York City in 2004 gave her the opportunity to study at The Michael Chekhov Acting Studio and the Lee Strasburg Institute for Theater and Film.

Personal life

In 2016 Bestic married her long time partner Vladimir Berisavac, lawyer, working as a consultant for The World Bank. They have two daughters – Iva was born in 2017, and Asja in 2018.

Serbian actor Slobodan Beštić is Sanja's uncle.

She studied in the same class with Jana Milić, Viktor Savić and Borka Tomović.

In her career she worked with a lot of Serbian artists, such as Katarina Radivojević, Jana Milić, Sergej Trifunović, Aleksandra Kovač, Marčelo, Luka Mijatović, Ana Milenković, Lejla Hot, Ana Bebić, Sara Jo, Nevena Božović, Verica Rakocević, Veljko Kuzmančević, Nebojša Babić, Miša Obradović.

Career

To propel her career, as a student, Sanja was the assistant director to many well known directors of the former Yugoslavia and Serbia. She has worked with: Dušan Jovanović, Ljubiša Ristić, Slobodan Umnkovski, Aleksandar Popovski, Filip Gajić, Gorčin Stojanović, Egon Savin, Ivana Vujić and Jug Radivojević. Her work as a student also included productions with the Association of Non-Verbal Theaters in Belgrade, Serbia. She was a member of the Svan Theater (the only non-verbal theatre where performances were set to music) where she performed and directed one of her plays, "Play Against Violence", showcasing the life and emotions of Serbians during the Belgrade bombings in 1999.

In 2004, Sanja's first US premiere, "Canary Soup" by Miloš Radović, performed at The Kraine Theater (an off-Broadway theater located in New York City's East Village) featured renowned Serbian actor Sergej Trifunovic in his NYC debut and Natalie Rodić. Her focus on Balkan classics and modern dramas allowed her to introduce Eastern European writers to the American audience. In a 2010 interview, Sanja stated that "The Weeping Game is a timeless classic Serbian piece" which she wished to introduce to American audiences. Additionally, Sanja has also directed American classics and modern dramas, such as Sidetracked (her fifth Off-Broadway play) by John Pastore at the Abingdon Theater in 2011, The Tiger by Murray Schisgal and, Want & Need by John Krisiukenas at Payan Theater in New York City in 2012.

She has produced and directed a number of off-Broadway shows, including Therapy by Jordan Cvetanovic and produced by KinoKamera Inc. Sanja has also directed Touch my Knees by David Albahari, The Government Inspector by Nikolai V. Gogol, Two Fools in Love by Dusko Radovic, and Painkillers by Neda Radulovic, The Doll by (Miro Gavran, Storefront + BenchProductions, The Local Theater NYC 2012 ), and All About Women (Miro Gavran, Storefront + BenchProductions, The Local Theater, NYC 2012).

In May 2013 she wrapped up Tesla, written by British award-winning playwright Sheri Graubert and produced by Entertainers UK, formerly EasyTheaters Productions based in London. Tesla premiered in May 2013 in New York City.^[2], one of the most respected Serbian-American scientists in the world. The play moved to London's West End. This project was highly supported by The Tesla Science Foundation and Office for Cooperation with Diaspora and Serbs in the Region^[3].

Aside from theater, Sanja has also worked in advertising, directed television commercials and short films. Her work has included TV commercials for Henkel (German), Societe Generale (French), and Vegeta (Podravka) (Croatia). Additionally, she has worked for Iteam Events and Skymusic Production (Skymusic Corporation), international marketing and event-planning agencies, where she directed and produced stage and corporate events, festivals and concerts at various theaters, ballrooms, and other venues. She is also actively involved in humanitarian work. Sanja is an Executive Producer at Digital Mind.

Sanja entered into an exclusive partnership with the media company KinoKamera Inc in 2009 and Storefront + Bench in 2011 as their sole theater director. In 2010, Sanja co-founded The Local Theater NYC, a non-profit, multicultural, interdisciplinary art gallery committed to the research, production, presentation, and interpretation of contemporary art. In 2012, Sanja started Art Fusion Project (AFP) in Belgrade (Serbia), which is an international multimedia art movement.

The AFP mission is to support creativity through education, management, and exposure for artist on the global level.

Sanja is the associate producer for the web series "Catch-30". Bestic did an Off-Broadway play titled "Jackie and Marilyn", in the spring of 2014 at Theatre Row (New York City) with Lorraine Farris Sage as Jackie Kennedy and Lella Satie as Marilyn Monroe. ^[4].

In 2018 Sanja joined VR All Art AG, a company based in Switzerland, as a Strategy Director. VR All Art was founded by Vitomir Jevremović and Alexander Fürer in 2017.

Awards

In 2013, Sanja Bestic was nominated and won an award by the Tesla Science Foundation, a result of her great efforts to promote the life and work of scientist Nikola Tesla through her theater and film project "Tesla".^{[5] [6]}

Theatre productions

References