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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Ivo Arakov: Valeri and Ivan made me fall in love with my profession even more
Jul 04, 2011 at 05:24 AM

Just a few day ago Ivo Arakov graduated NATFA in the class of prof. Atanas Atanassov. Now he acts in “The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?” and “King Lear” at the National Theatre “Ivan Vazov” and in Harold...

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Ina Nikolova: Valeri and Ivan are magicians
Jun 28, 2011 at 07:40 AM

Today Sneakers, the feature debut of the directing duo Valeri Yordanov and Ivan Vladimirov, will be screened at the Moscow Film Festival where it was selected in the competition programme. As we...

Iglika Trifonova and Rossitsa Valkanova
Sofia Meetings project wins this year’s Krzysztof Kieslowski ScripTeast Award
Jun 01, 2011 at 07:05 AM

Iglika Trifonova and Rossitsa ValkanovaThe winner of this year's Krzysztof Kieslowski ScripTeast Award for the best Eastern and Central European Script was named  during Cannes International Film...

Ovanes Torosyan
Ovanes Torosyan: I can feel a movement in Bulgarian cinema
Jun 01, 2011 at 06:21 AM

Ovanes TorosyanOvanes Torosyan plays one of the two leads in Konstantin Bojanov’s Ave, which was selected in the competition programme of the Critics Week at Cannes. The film’s premiere within the...

Boyka Velkova
Boyka Velkova: "The Island" is an example of quality Bulgarian cinema
Jun 01, 2011 at 06:14 AM

Boyka VelkovaKamen Kalev's The Island was screened for the first time last night at Cannes during the programme Directors Fortnight (Quinzaine des realizateurs). Let us wish that the film has a long...

Rousy Chanev and Kamen Kalev
Rousy Chanev: Kamen Kalev is a very open person and therefore all the actors invaded with their ideas
Jun 01, 2011 at 06:11 AM

Rousy Chanev and Kamen KalevThe Island will be screened today at Theatre Croisette in Hotel Marriot at 14 and 22h as part of the "Directors Fortnight" programme. Rousy Chanev, one of the film's...

Thure Lindhart
Thure Lindhardt: Bulgarian filmmakers are not quite aware yet of how good they really are
Jun 01, 2011 at 06:08 AM

Thure LindhartKamen Kalev’s second feature The Island, which tells the story of a young couple heading to a remote island in the Black Sea where their relationship is questioned, was invited to the...

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Triupmh of the new Bulgarian cinema
Jun 01, 2011 at 06:05 AM

Kamen Kalev’s second feature The Island, which tells the story of a young couple heading to a remote island in the Black Sea where their relationship is questioned, was invited to the Directors...

Dragomir Sholev
Dragomir Sholev: “Bulgarian cinema is permanently in the condition of missed possibilities”
Jun 01, 2011 at 06:03 AM

Dragomir Sholev– Have you already seen any of the competitive films and what can you say about them? Thank you for that question. I feel great. I’m very careful not to catch the flu. – It...

Gabrielle Brunnenmeyer
Gabrielle Brunnenmeyer: There is a young generation of film-makers in Bulgaria who has a lot to tell
Jun 01, 2011 at 06:01 AM

Gabrielle BrunnenmeyerHaving worked as a journalist and film critic, Gabriele Brunnenmeyer was in charge of the MEDIA Antenna Berlin-Brandenburg, acting as an artistic adviser for MEDIA training...