Sofia International Film Festival

Sofia International Film Festival

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For 16th year Sofia International Film Festival will gather together in Sofia films, guests, stars, journalists and cinema fans from 9th until 18th March 2012. Featured in Variety’s Top 50 of cinema festivals, the event presents Bulgaria to the world as the host one of the important film festivals in Europe and takes place annually in March. What started as a thematic music film festival, went through 15 previous editions to become the cinema event of the year, bringing the current world cinema trends to the domestic viewers in Bulgaria and the latest in Bulgarian cinema to the rest of the world.

Since 1997 more than 1,600 feature films and documentaries have been screened within the festival’s framework. More than 1,000 distinguished guests have attended, including established professionals such as Wim Wenders, Volker Schlondorff, Katja Riemann and Karl Baumgartner (Germany), Alan Parker, Peter Greenaway, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, Tony Palmer and David Mackenzie (United Kingdom), Nikita Mikhalkov, Andrei Konchalovsky, Karen Shakhnazarov and Bakhtyar Khudojnazarov (Russia), Jiri Menzel, Jan Sverak, Jan Hrebejk and Petr Zelenka (Czech Republic), Emir Kusturica (Yugoslavia), Krzysztof Zanussi (Poland), Otar Iosseliani (Georgia), Jean-Claude Carriere, Agnes Varda, Siegfried and Jacques Dorfmann (France), Assumpta Serna (Spain), Bent Hamer and Unni Straume (Norway), Jafar Panahi and Babak Payami (Iran), Jerry Schatzberg, Michael Wadleigh and Lech Kowalski (USA), Jos Stelling (the Netherlands), Mika Kaurismaki (Finland), Friðrik Þór Friðriksson (Iceland), Lone Scherfig (Denmark), Kornel Mundruczo (Hungary), Goran Markovic, Goran Paskaljević, Radivoje Andric, Dusan Milic, Srđan Karanović and Srđan Dragojević (Serbia) and many others.
The festival is organized by Art Fest under the auspices of the Municipality of Sofia and in partnership with the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture, the National Palace of Culture, the National Film Center and the Bulgarian National Television with the support of the MEDIA programme of the European Commission, national and foreign cultural institutes and sponsors.
For its 10th anniversary as an international cinema event in the year 2010 named Year of Bulgarian Cinema, Sofia International Film Festival received as present the recognition from FIAPF (International Federation of Film Producers Associations) - it was accredited as competitive festival specialized in first and second films. Since its creation the director of the festival has been Stefan Kitanov.
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Sofia International Film Festival's Blogs

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Films from SIFF's selection awarded at Golden Rhyton
Dec 17, 2012 at 11:45 AM

Two awards - for Best Documentary and the Award of the Bulgarian National Cinematheque received The Boy Who Was A King at the 19th Festival of the Bulgarian Documentary and Animation Film "Golden...

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Stefan Kitanov receives Europa Cinemas Award for Entrepreneur of the Year 2012
Dec 20, 2012 at 11:40 PM

Every year Europa Cinemas awards three Prizes to the Best Exhibitors of the Network and this year the Europa Cinemas Award for Entrepreneur of the Year has been awarded to Stefan Kitanov. In the...

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Open Call for Submissions for SOFIA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2013
Nov 29, 2012 at 11:33 AM

Sofia International Film Festival (Sofia IFF) is aimed to promote significant and innovative works in the contemporary world cinema for local audience and regional (Bulgarian and Balkan) cinema to...

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Sofia Meetings projects in EFA"s selection
Sep 11, 2012 at 11:33 AM

The European Film Academy (EFA) revealed the selection of 47 titles from which in November the nominations for the annual awards will be announced. Among them there are two Sofia Meetings’...

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Sofia Meetings project wins the Heart of Sarajevo
Jul 16, 2012 at 08:26 AM

Romanian Everybody in Our Family received Sarajevo's Grand Prize - the Heart of Sarajevo on Saturday.  Director Radu Jude's film was presented as project during Sofia Meetings in 2009 and is the...

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Two Sofia Meetings' films win at Karlovy Vary
Jul 09, 2012 at 09:10 AM

Sofia's Last Ambulance is on a winning spree! Last night Iliyan Metev's film was awarded with Best Documentary Award for a title over 30 min. long at Karlovy Vary IFF. After receiving Canal 4's...

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Moscow's Main Competition juror, director Yavor Gardev, also presented his project "Contra"
Jul 06, 2012 at 02:26 PM

Yavor Gardev presented his project Contra during the Moscow Co-Production Forum at Moscow Business Square. Contra was first presented during Sofia Meetings, and in Moscow it competed with 23 more...

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Hugh Hudson: Sport is a form of pure art
Jun 26, 2012 at 02:30 PM

  Sport is a form of pure art, an individualistic form of art. Even collective sports like football are art in themselves. Yes, sport is definitely an art – water jumps are so beautiful, archery...

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Dimitre Dinev: Living different lives through the characters one creates, is much more interesting than writing about oneself
Jun 19, 2012 at 01:48 PM

Writer Dimitre Dinev has been living in Austria for years now. As a co-writer of Anja Salomonowitz’ debut feature Spain, he was a special guest at the 16th Sofia IFF. The following are excerpts from...

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Bulgarian success at Cannes
May 28, 2012 at 01:21 PM

Day before the end of the 65th edition of the International Film Festival in Cannes, the Critic's Week gave away their awards. The jury was presided by director Bertrand Bonello, whose latest feature...