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

Selim Gunes
Selim Gunes: I have been influenced by the new trends in cinema
Jun 01, 2011 at 05:22 AM

Selim GunesThe director's debut film White as Snow confirms the strong presence of recent Turkish films in SIFF international competition’s selection. Influenced by his own childhood, the snow...

Paul Fraser
Paul Fraser: "I don’t think anyone really makes a film with the thoughts of awards in mind"
Jun 01, 2011 at 06:23 AM

Paul Fraser– My Brothers is your debut feature film as a director, but you have been also working as an actor and screenwriter – was it difficult for you to make this film? I feel like I have...

Ognjen Sviličić, Sylvia Christel: Ognjen Sviličić, Sylvia Christel
Ognjen Sviličić about the Balkans, the festivals and everything
May 30, 2011 at 10:10 AM

Ognjen Sviličić, Sylvia ChristelThe famous Croatian film director Ognjen Sviličić, internationally renown with his movies Sorry for Kung Fu (2004) and Armin (2007), is coming to Sofia Fil Festival...

Joao Nuno Pinto: Joao Nuno Pinto
Joao Nuno Pinto: The sea remains a symbol of hope
May 30, 2011 at 10:04 AM

Joao Nuno Pinto As in Antonio Lobo Antunes’ novel South Of Nowhere (Os Cus de Judas, 1979), a novel, telling the story about the war in Angola, but being actually a story about Portugal, in the...

Alvaro Brechner: Alvaro Brechner
Alvaro Brechner: I like films that surprise me
May 30, 2011 at 10:01 AM

Alvaro Brechner: Alvaro BrechnerAlvaro Brechner was born in Montevideo in 1976. 12 years ago he leaves Uruguay and moves to Madrid where he starts working as a director. He has directed a number...

Jozko Rutar: Jozko Rutar
The producer Jozko Rutar: "Silent Sonata" is a war film without soldiers
May 30, 2011 at 10:04 AM

Jozko RutarBulgarian cinephiles know well the name of Jozko Rutar, the producer of Silent Sonata (A.K.A. Circus Fantasticus) from another cult Slovenian film, Jan Cvitkovic’ Gravehopping (2005)....

Dimitar Kotsev – Shosho: Dimitar Kotsev – Shosho
Dimitar Kotsev – Shosho: The debates over Bulgarian cinema are heading in a strange direction
May 30, 2011 at 09:52 AM

Dimitar Kotsev – Shosho: Dimitar Kotsev – ShoshoWhy did you choose to adapt your own novel to the screen, rather than someone else’s? My novel is tied to my own life. As a debutant I thought that...

Nick Whitfield
Nick Whitfield and the ancient Bulgarian technics to drive away the ghosts
May 30, 2011 at 09:38 AM

Nick WhitfieldA brilliant British dark comedy or to be more specific: a sad story about our world and the world beyond disguised as a comedy; a story of a family and of a broken family and a story...

Ben Berkowitz
Ben Berkowitz: We had been working with some really unique underground artists
May 28, 2011 at 03:28 PM

Ben Berkowitz 10 years ago Ben Berkowitz made his debut as a film director with a movie called Straightman (Benzfilm, 2001). The story in the film is about the friendship between a straight guy...

Sylvia Christel: Sylvia Christel, photo by Studio Fo
Sylvia Kristel: I have no unfulfilled dream
May 28, 2011 at 03:26 PM

Sylvia Christel, photo by Studio Fo  Could you tell us about the storyline and especially your part in 2 Sunny Days? Did you know the director before? In 2 Sunny...