Polish film director Agnieszka Holland and actress Geraldine Chaplin will be special guests at the 24th edition of Sofia Film Fest.
The celebrated film director who presented her latest film “Charlatan” at Berlinale, will receive the FIPRESCI 94 Platinum Award (Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique). Geraldine Chaplin will be awarded Sofia Municipality’s Sofia prize for her contribution to filmmaking. Several films in which she stars will be screened during the festival.
The film festival opens in Hall No. 1 of the National Palace of Culture in Sofia on 12 March, with the screening of the Bulgarian film “Petya of my Petya”. As the festival’s Stefan Kitanov says the focus is on Bulgarian films:
This year we are screening 21 Bulgarian feature films, a fact that makes us very happy. I think Bulgarian cinema is constantly evolving to a higher level. More successes are sure to come, over the past decade there have been a great many. Bulgarian films won the grand prix at three category “A” festivals in the world.
The Grand Prix in the competition for debut or second films "Sofia - City of Cinema" will be conferred by a prestigious international jury, the EUR 7,000 in prize money is provided by Sofia Municipality. Two of the films in the competition programme are Bulgarian - 18% Gray directed by Viktor Chouchkov-junior and Sister by Svetla Tsotsorkova. The Sofia Award for outstanding contribution in cinema will go to artist, film director and producer of feature and animated films, and documentaries Anri Kulev:
We shall show his latest film – Once there was a war – but will also take a journey back in time with a retrospection of selected clips of his films, Stefan Kitanov adds. There will also be an exhibition of pages from the storyboard of his latest book.
More than 150 full-length feature films and documentaries will be shown during the 24th edition of Sofia Film Fest and the screenings will go on until the end of March. Around 30 guests from abroad are expected to arrive for the forum. Many of them are coming especially for Sofia Meetings – a business platform for filmmakers.
This year many of the films will be Bulgarian, says Stefan Kitanov:
I am certain of the potential of the new names emerging in Bulgarian cinema every year, and we shall be seeing some of them make their debut at the festival. Watch the Bulgarian films because, I would say, they will help us see life around us. Eight of the Bulgarian feature films will have their premiere at Sofia Film Fest – an absolute record thus far. I wholeheartedly wish them success.
Editor: Darina Grigorova
