This week, the first Bulgarian actress nominated for an Oscar - Maria Bakalova, received the honorary badge "Ambassador of Destination Bulgaria" from the Minister of Tourism Stella Baltova.

The event took place just days after Bakalova walked the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival to present the film "Women Do Cry" by director Mina Mileva and Vessela Kazakova. The international success of the 25-year-old actress from Burgas can certainly be described as huge, but fortunately she is not the only one. A number of Bulgarian theater actors and directors in recent decades have achieved great professional success abroad. The great Bulgarian breakthrough, though, came after the democratic changes of 1989 when some of Bulgaria’s best directors moved abroad and started successful careers. An example of this is Dimitar Gochev, who in his lifetime was placed among the top ten best German directors and received all the most prestigious theater awards in Germany. After his death on October 20, 2013, his work was chosen as the "focus theme" of the Berlin Theater Meetings - the most important theatrical event in Germany. His professional companion in the German theater was actor Samuel Finzi. Although Finzi continues to act in Bulgarian films, he is among the leading and most popular actors in German theater. Renowned Bulgarian director Tedi Moskov also has successful career in Germany. Director Galin Stoev is the theatrical ambassador of Bulgaria in France. Since January 2018, he has been the director of the Theater in Toulouse, France, and in 2019 the French government bestowed the award of Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters to him.

We cannot miss the name of a Bulgarian mime Gerasim Dishliev, a student of the great Marcel Marceau and the first and only Bulgarian so far in the Cirque du Soleil.

Compiled by: Vesela Krasteva

English: Alexander Markov