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

Claudia Cardinale
Claudia Cardinale: An actor lives many different lives
Jun 01, 2011 at 05:55 AM

Claudia CardinaleIn the past couple of years you haven’t been appearing on the big screen that often, perhaps you don’t have offers for the more interesting roles that you want? Claudia...

Fridrik Thor Fridriksson
Fridrik Thor Fridriksson: "“Long winters in Iceland predispose to creative work"
Jun 01, 2011 at 05:58 AM

Fridrik Thor FridrikssonThe Chairman of the International Jury Fridrik Thor Fridriksson is a phenomenal storyteller – not only in his films but also in an informal chat. On the day of the first show...

Andrzej Zulawski
Andrzej Zulawski: Good cinema does not walk on the ground
Jun 01, 2011 at 05:49 AM

Andrzej Zulawski- You shot your last film in 2000. What replaced cinema in your career? I have written 25 books and I have directed 13 films, so as you can see literature occupies most of my...

Goran Paskalevic
Goran Paskaljevic with a special screening at the 15th Sofia International Film Festival
Jun 01, 2011 at 05:46 AM

Goran PaskalevicPerhaps the most original Serbian director today is in Sofia for the meeting of the Bord of the European Film Academy. As a member of EFA Goran Paskaljevic took part in Sofia Meetings...

Dragomir Sholev
AWARDS OF THE 15th SOFIA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Jun 01, 2011 at 05:43 AM

Dragomir SholevThe main programme of the 15th edition of Sofia International Film Festival ended on the 13th of March with a gala screening of Aleksei Uchitel’s film The Edge. The festival...

Viktor Chouchkov
Viktor Chouchkov: “It is not necessary for a production to have a huge viewer interest in order to say that it is good.”
Jun 01, 2011 at 05:40 AM

Viktor Chouchkov- This is the first selection of TILT in an international competition of a film festival, what are your expectations? The first participation of TILT in a competition was at...

Danis Tanovic
Danis Tanovic: I immediately felt at home in Sofia
Jun 01, 2011 at 05:38 AM

Danis TanovicProbably one of the most long-awaited guests and for sure one of the favorite directors of the audience especially of SIFF (since 2002, the year of No Man’s Land – the film, the Oscar,...

Dunja Klemenc
“Some Other Stories” about motherhood, presented in Sofia by the Slovenian producer Dunja Klemenc
Jun 01, 2011 at 05:34 AM

Dunja Klemenc Some Other Stories is a co-production between Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Ireland. Each of the five segments in the film has been shot by a team...

Hossein Keshavarz
Hossein Keshavarz: "I made 'Dog Sweat' to celebrate the irrepressible energy of Iranian youth"
Jun 01, 2011 at 05:29 AM

Hossein Keshavarz- We live in a globalization nowadays, but if you have to compare the problems of the young people in Iran and the problems of the young people in the Western world, where are the...

Bence Miklauzic
Bence Miklauzic: "The interest towards the others, co-habitation and solidarity are the main issues for the world today"
Jun 01, 2011 at 05:25 AM

Bence MiklauzicThe director of one of the films from the International Competition, Children of the Green Dragon, Bence Miklauzic, replied with a smile to the question that is asked to every guest of...