Sanja Bestic

Sanja Bestic ( sr, Сања Бeштић, Sanja Beštić; born June 13, 1982) is a Serbian-American director, writer and producer.

Early life

Sanja was born in Zemun, Belgrade, Serbia to mother Biljana Gajić Beštić, an artist, and father Branislav Beštić, a soccer player from Belgrade, Yugoslavia (present day Serbia). Her younger brother, Vladimir Beštić, is a former Serbian football player who has since become the head coach at a prestigious football academy in New York City, USA.

Sanja attended Zemun High School (''Zemunska Gimnazija'') while simultaneously studying at the renowned theater studio and acting school under the direction of the highly respected theater professor, Mika Aleksić. She pursued theater 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, after moving to New York City in 2004, further expanded her studies at The Michael Chekhov Acting Studio and the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.

Personal life

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

While still a student, to propel her career, Sanja worked as 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 theater where performances were set to music) where she performed and directed one of her plays, ''Play Against Violence'', showcasing the life and emotions of Serbian people during the Belgrade bombings in 1999.

Sanja's first US premiere was in 2004, when ''Canary Soup'' by Miloš Radović was performed at The Kraine Theater (an off-Broadway theater located in New York City's East Village) featuring renowned Serbian actor Sergej Trifunović in his NYC debut, as well as 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, produced by KinoKamera Inc. Sanja has also directed ''Touch my Knees'' by David Albahari

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