Dear filmmakers,

You will find information regarding Sofia Meetings soon on our new web page.

For any questions, please contact us at mira@sofiaiff.com, sofiameetings@sofiaiff.com

Dear filmmakers,

The next edition of the festival will be held from 4th until 14th of March 2010.

The application deadline is December 10th, 2009.

You will find regulations and entry form soon on our new web page. If you would like to receive the forms by e-mail, please write to vihrena@sofiaiff.com

The programme of the 14th Sofia IFF includes the following sections:
- Official programme (international competition and special screenings)
- Documentary programme (competition)
- Bulgarian feature films
- Balkan films showcase
- European screen
- World screen
- Bulgarian shorts
- Retrospectives and tributes
- Special events

Stephan Komandarev's film won the award for Best Film - Saturno d'Oro at Saturno Film Festival di Alatri, Italy. The international jury appointed the Best actor award to Miki Manojlovic - and this is the 4-th award for his incredible performance in "The World Is Big". The producer Stefan Kitanov received the awards. President of Saturno International Film Festival is Giuliano Montaldo.

The international jury was headed by John Francis Lane (Guardian correspondent in Rome for over 40 years, appeared in small roles as an actor in "La Dolce Vita", "The Canterbury Tales", "Rome"; friends with Fellini, Pasolini, Gore Vidal, Dino Risi). The other jury members were the director Franco Giraldi, the film critic Gregorio Napoli, the cinematographer Marco Pontecorvo (Gillo Pontecorvo's son) and Renzo Rosselini (director and producer, Roberto Rosselini's son).

Bulgaria and Bulgarian cinema were mentioned in every speech at the closing gala ceremony.

After this triumph international awards for "The World Is Big" are already 23 (21 awards and 2 nominations). The film was released in Bulgaria 60 weeks ago and still it can be seen on big screen in our country as well as in 18 other countries (an unique fact for new Bulgarian cinema!). The film is Bulgarian entry for Oscar foreign language film nominations. "The World Is Big" will be screened at forthcoming festivals in Palm Springs, Santa Barbara and Tehran.

The director Stephan Komandarev received the grand prix award of the 16-th International film fest in Belarus capital Minsk (http://www.tvr.by/eng/culture.asp?id=20465). Again the public decided which was the best film at the festival, as it also happened a month ago in Benalmadena, Spain, where "The World Is Big And Salvation Lurks Around The Corner" won the two most important awards of the festival. The international jury of Minsk's festival, headed by the famous Russian director Pavel Chukhraj, decided to give the second festival award to
Jan Troell's “The Everlasting Moments of Maria Larsson”, which has nomination fr the forthcoming European Film Awards.

This is the 21-st international award for "The World Is Big". The film has already 19 international awards (4 of them are for "the best film") and 2 nominations.

Last week "The World Is Big And Salvation Lurks Around The Corner" had a premiere in Serbian capitol, Belgrade. Among the guests were the actors Miki Manojlovic, Christo Mutafchiev, Ana Papadopulu, the director Stephan Komandarev and the producer Stefan Kitanov. The Minister of Culture of Serbia Mr. Nebojsha Bradich was also a guest of the special gala screening as well as Bulgarian ambassador in Serbia Mr. Georgi Dimitrov, the director of Radio 3 in Belgrade Peter Punchev and many artists. There was a backgammon tournament between "The World Is Big"-team and the team "The World of Serbian backgammon fans" before the screening. The film received ovations, the audience was moved and really impressed by the quality of that big co-production. "The World Is Big" was released on the cinemas in Belgrade and it's the first Bulgarian film, distributed in Serbia in last 20 years.

The most recent stop of “The World Is Big”’s triumphant festival journey was at 25-th edition of the renown European IFF Festroia (Setubal), Portugal, where the film was decorated with three awards. Stephan Komandarev received Best Director award. The director and the producer Stefan Kitanov went on stage to collect SIGNIS prize and Audience award. This is the forth Audience award received so far – the other three were at Sofia IFF, Zurich IFF and Taipei IFF which is a proof of appreciation from various different audiences. Portugal is among 16 countries that bought the film for distribution so far. One interesting fact – the legendary Paulo Branco, producer behind most of Manoel de Oliveira’s films, is responsible for the distribution of the film in Portugal.

The award-winning film “The World Is Big And Salvation Lurks Around The Corner” (Bulgaria-Germany-Hungary-Slovenia) is Bulgarian submission for Academy Award nominations for Best Foreign Language Film – that was the decision of the members of Bulgarian National Film Council last week. The film directed by Stephan Komandarev is based on the bestseller by the renown Bulgarian-German author Ilija Trojanow and became one of the main Bulgarian film events of the last two decades. The film has participated in different programmes of nearly 50 festivals around the world, collected 18 awards and was sold to 16 countries in Europe and Asia. "The World Is Big" an impressive domestic box office and 48 weeks has kept positions in Bulgarian Top 20!

"The World Is Big And Salvation Lurks Around The Corner" participated in festivals as follows:

2008
Sofia, Moscow, Karlovy Vary, Palic, Motovun, Sarajevo, Montreal, Zurich, Skopje, Warsaw, Rotterdam, Kiev, Haifa, Bergen, Varna, Nova Zagora, Amsterdam, Portorosh, Mar del Plata, Kolkata, Tallinn

2009
Trieste, Goteborg, Berlin (market), Prague, Vilnius, London, Edinburgh, Ljubljana, Rome, Cannes (market), Amsterdam, Almaty, Plovdiv, Taipei, Yerevan, Sevastopol, Durres, Festroia-Setubal, Bern, Benalmadena-Spain, Asmara-Eritrea, Alatri-Italy, Tbilisi

Awards
Sofia IFF, Bulgaria - Audience Award, Best Bulgarian Feature Film Award
LUX Prix of the European Parliament - Official Selection
Zurich IFF, Switzerland - Audience Award
“Golden Rose” FF, Varna, Bulgaria - Best Script Award, Best Cinematographer Award (shared)
Warsaw IFF, Poland - Special Jury Award
Bergen IFF, Norway - Grand Prix „Cinema Extraordinaire”
Tallinn IFF „Black Nights”, Estonia – Jury Special Mention, Don Quijote Award of the International Federation of Film Clubs
“The Film and the City” FF, Nova Zagora, Bulgaria - Best Film
Vilnius IFF, Lithuania - Grand Prix for Best Film, Special Jury Award for Best Actor to Miki Manojlovic
Almaty IFF, Kazakhstan – Award for Best Actor to Miki Manojlovic
International Film Summerfest, Durres, Albania - Best Director Award to Stephan Komandarev
Bulgarian submission for Academy Award nominations for Best Foreign Language Film

Perfect way to spend the summer in the city! The sellected films are 72, the weeks are 6 and that means you can watch 12 films a week, approximately 2 films per day! An opportunity not to miss - all the films are spectacular, marvellous and it would be instant joy to watch them :) But you'd better not listen to me - I'm totally in love with musicals :)

The sixth edition of Sofia Meetings will take place March 12-15, 2009 within the framework of the 13th Sofia International Film Festival (March 5-15, 2009).

Sofia Meetings is held with the support of the MEDIA and MEDIA International 2009 programmes of the European Union, The National Film Centre executive agency, and partners, including Sofia Municipality, the Central European Initiative, Nu Boyana Film, Synchro Lab, the Robert Bosch Foundation, Crossroads, Producers Network, EAVE, etc.

Sofia Meetings is a forum focused on the professional cinema audience – directors, producers, distributors, representatives of funding bodies and film festivals - that takes place in two independent modules:

Pitching – a presentation of projects for a debut, second or third feature film by the director who is seeking financial assistance or co-producers.
Balkan Screenings – a panorama of the latest Bulgarian and Balkan feature and short films, as well as screenings of works by filmakers whose projects had been presented at Sofia Meetings. The screenings are for representatives of film festivals, international companies for film distribution and journalists.

The selection includes 23 projects for a debut, second or third feature film. They will be presented by their directors and producers in front of a large audience of established experts from national and international financing organizations, producing and distributing companies.
The programme will include a public presentation of the projects followed by individual meetings among the participants and the specialists who have demonstrated an interest in them.

A presentation of the “Sofia CineLinks Sarajevo” joint project of the film festivals in Sofia and Sarajevo will have its premiere. The project is supported by the MEDIA International Programme. Four of the film projects at Sofia Meetings will be from countries in the Balkans that are not EU member states and members of the MEDIA programme.


The projects will be presented in the following three subcategories:

Second Films Pitching
Everybody in Our Family, director Radu Jude, producer Ada Solomon
Aurora, directorрежисьор Cristina Buosite, producer Eva Norvilene
Come to My Voice!, director Hussein Karabey, producer
Fiction, director Andri Luup, producer Eero Tavistu
Love Eternal, director Brandon Muldowney, producer Barry Connor
Ballet Master and the Seven Enemies of the People, director Jaak Kilmi, producer Margus Ounapu
Zero, director Gula Nemes, producer Laszlo Nemes
Last Moments,director Freddy Mas Franqueza, producer Claudia Peres
Mexican Express, directors Boris Despodov, Preet Tender, screenplay writer Andrey Paounov, Producers Boris Despodov and Preet Tender
Transilvania Show, director Robert Lakatos, producer Andras Muhi

Plus Minus One
Аrcheo, director Jan Cvitkovic, producer Jozko Rutar
America Square, director Iannis Sakaridis, producer Maria Tzika
The Silence , director Cahpour Haghighat, producer Anne Feron-Haghighat
The Judgement, director Stephan Komandarev, producer Stephan Komandarev
Heaven on Earth, director Ognjen Svilic, producer Janja Kral
L’Italo Americano, director Joshua Sinclair, producer Paolo Spina
Petros&Kyle, director Taavi Vartia, producer Erika Kokuna
Ave, director Konstantin Boyanov, producer Dimiter Gochev and Jana Kral
The Black Box, director Dimiter Mitovski, producer Ivan Doykov

Sofia Cinelinks Sarajevo
Fuga Mortis, director Kiril Mihanovski, producer Oleg Cohan and Evgenii Gindilis
The Dance of Flags, director Edmond Budina, producer Robert Budina
Cold Clouds, director Kakha Kikhabidze, producer Jelena Jacura
Milk Powder, director Siri Onder, producer Nechati Akpinar

The prize for best presentation in the Second Films Pitching category is EUR 5 000, while the prize in the Plus Minus One category is EUR 5000 in services granted by Synchro Lab, Vienna.

The winning project will be presented at the Crossroads co-production market, Thessaloniki IFF, and the winning project at the Crossroads will take part in the 2009 edition of Second Films Pitching.
The producers of the winning project will be given accreditation for the Producers Network, Cannes Market.

In partnership with ЕАVE, selected projects from EAVE 2008 will be presented at Sofia Meetings.


A busy agenda of lectures, training programmes presentations and discussion panels will run on the sidelines.

We are glad to inform you that the Robert Bosch Cinema Foundation that supports short films, documentaries and animation co-productions between Germany and South East European countries will present for the third time The Co-production Prize /www.filmfoerderpreis.com/. Within the presentation’s framework 10 young Bulgarian directors searching for co-producers will present their projects in front of 5 German producers. In addition to the programme Sarajevo Talent Campus will present short films created in partnership among young filmmakers from the region.

An international roundtable discussion organized jointly with the Sunny Side оf the Doc international market for documentary films, The Central European Initiative and the Cultural Institute with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will focus on the presentation of the current practices for distribution of feature and documentary films in Central and Eastern Europe. Traditional distribution hinders the development of the film market and this creates the need of alternative means. That is why the most up-to-date distribution means - Video on Demand and Cinema on Demand - will be in the focus of the discussions. The alternative to the established model for distribution will yet to impose itself because it offers consumers new titles via their cable TV operator or Internet provider for a single viewing and in exchange of a small fee. These platforms might give a chance to the local producers and directors to find a new audience in a unique way.

More than 120 producers, distributors, representatives of international film markets, financing funds and training programmes from Europe and the region, as well as representatives of prestigious film festivals will take part in the forthcoming event.

The new funding programme Media International and the Media Development and Media Promotion, Festivals and Training programmes will be presented in partnership with MEDIA DESK Bulgaria. The training programmes Mediterranean Film Institute - Script 2 Film, Scripteast, Primepackaging and the Bulgarian Tosmi programme will also be presented.

An open class will take place with a focus on the documentary cinema of Patrick Sandrin within the framework of Sofia Meetings.

More than 35 new productions will be presented in front of people in charge of festival selections and the media.

On March 15 the Cinema House in Sofia hosted the press screening of Wim Wenders’ latest film, “Palermo Shooting”, after which there was a free discussion with the filmmaker.
We bring you here excerpts from this meeting.

Why “Palermo Shooting?”

I’ve been living in the United States for 10 years and when I returned to Europe, I felt the urge to do something special. And then I realized I needed to make a film that will indeed mean something to me. This is one of the reasons why the plot opens in my birthplace, because I had shot on location everywhere in the world but my native city. I asked myself what was the thing that most mattered to me? And then it dawned on me it was something of a disease that I had and I absolutely had to share it with everyone else. The essence of this disease is to be short of time for anything. In fact, most of my friends have it, too. Most of us are far too busy and have no time left for communication. We constantly have to think what we are going to do tomorrow, the day after tomorrow and none of us is able to be present here and now, at this very moment. We have somehow lost the ability. We all live in the future one way or another and that is why we consider ourselves immortal. In my opinion in present-day culture people think less of death than they used to in the past. This does not happen in our civilization. Even in the entertaining industry, in films, death does not occur. Of course, you can witness the massacre of thousands of people in films; killing people has become indispensable to filmmaking. But what death is, and what it means to people has been left out of the film. So, it is exactly this kind of contemporary sickness that is among the things that are most important to me. I needed to share this feeling with as many people as possible and the more I considered it, the more I came to terms with the fact that it was some kind of a taboo. That is why death is not present in films as a protagonist. There are all sorts of devils, the Satan, a myriad of monsters, etc., but death as a character can only be found in fiction and not in movies. Come to think of it, it is a very interesting character and we are bound to meet it one day, and I don’t think this is such a bad character, after all.

Going back to Palermo, I knew the city a little, and I chose it for a very superficial reason: I thought it was a beautiful and colourful city. To me it was something like the Havana of Europe. I love Havana, I love ports. That is why I went to Palermo and once I was there I realized it was the only city where I could shoot this film. I understood that somehow Palermo knew more about the subject of the film than any other city. It knew more about death than I could possibly imagine, and only a few weeks into it did I discover those wonderful frescos and what I made was a film based on a huge tableau. In fact, the city did influence the film. I had always hoped that a place can have that kind of influence on a work of art because in my films places are paramount to the protagonists. And in this case Palermo is the lead character of the film.

Not all films are related to music in the same way. Sometimes music is a main subject in a movie. The way it was in “Lisbon Story” for instance, it is the essence of the film. I wanted to have a photographer in the plot, because to me photographers live on the frontline of contemporary civilization. Somehow they are the only ones able to feel cultural shifts. And then I realized there was a subject that was a taboo in cinema, but it was no taboo in rock’n’roll or blues music, and many musicians touch upon this subject without shame, and dwell on death with a great deal of sincerity and without the slightest embarrassment. And I tried to select songs that treat the subject and found there were hundreds of songs like that. I told myself, if these people have done it, why don’t I make my film like one rock song? And it influenced the film a great deal. I chose Campino for the male lead. His band has a registered mark, and its logo is the skull. Campino too has authored many beautiful songs about death. He has written a very touching song about his mother’s death, and the way that standing by her grave he realized how much he missed her and how he wanted her to be close to him, but she was simply not there. It is stupid to separate life from death, and it is just as stupid to drive the thought of death from our minds, because in my opinion this thought could alter our whole lives. There are many cultures in the world that are not so preoccupied with keeping death away from life. And the protagonist at the end of the film is a much better person that he was at the beginning.

I began my career as photographer. I took pictures of landscapes. Very often I take pictures of streets, buildings, landscapes and tableaux. Sometimes it happens that there are people in them, but they always look very tiny on the photo. And sometimes I even wait until they get out of the lens’s view. But the places I choose to photograph are always witnesses of the people who are there. Very often the culture of the people who inhabit a certain place is better visible through their buildings, and the places they live rather than through their eyes. Whereas my wife, who is a photographer, has adopted a totally different approach. She is interested in nothing else but people, she takes black-and-white pictures, and there are mostly people in them, while I am interested in colour photography and not interested in the people. But even in this totally different approach, very often both of us manage to arrive to the essence of a given place. And it is a very strange thing, in both cases, for example, when you photograph a person and they start posing in front of the camera, and you can never reveal their true self. And the secret of photographing people is that they are not aware that they are being photographed. And my theory about places is the same. In fact, the buildings, the streets can also pose for the camera. Death is a bad model and that is why it has such a bad reputation. Of course, you cannot capture death on a photo. But any picture can talk of death, and every single photograph in the film talks of death. Because all the pictures you are taking at the moment we’ll outlive me and the person who takes them. That is, if the photographer does not forget to save them on their computer. And that is why death can only feel sorry that films are no longer used.

I can’t say I believe in death, no one believes in death, but it has this ability because it is there and it happens, and there is no way that we can believe in death. You may try to push it out of your mind, but it won’t help. I kept noticing myself that in those moments when I had actually seen death and someone else in front of me witnessed death had been the most important ones in my life, and the most powerful ones, as well. That is why I cannot say I believe in death. But I do believe that it is very important to accept death.

Love is something I can tell more about, because I am already sixty-three, and I’ve been making films for forty years, but I do not want to sound too self-confident, I just want to show that I have learnt something about it. And judging from my whole life experience I can tell you that only the things I have done out of and in the name of love have survived. Everything else is gone. Only what I have done with love matters to me and everyone else. The things we do out of ambition look differently. Generally speaking, when I was younger, at the beginning of my career I had my ambitions, of course, and we are taught to be ambitious. But the result when you are led by ambition is rather dubious. So my advice to you is always put love in what you do. And I have seen people do simple things and become very successful.

When you complete a film it becomes part of the past, but those of you who are parents know that their children are not part of the past, but they live with us in the present moment. That is how I look at my films, as if they were my children, and some of them grew up and became good, others are still a little bit naughty. And I worry about the naughty kids and that is why I am traveling with “Palermo Shooting”. It was a difficult child and I knew that its life would not be easy because it raises difficult questions. And this film will walk me through my life and I have to hold it by the hand.

Time is a very strange thing. It is one of the materials with which artists work, and when you are a film director scenes are pieces of time you have to arrange like an architect. You end up knowing less about time, than you did at the beginning. Because time is extremely subjective by definition. We are unable to control time; it can pass either more quickly, or more slowly. In “Palermo Shooting” the protagonist speaks about time, and says at the opening of the film, “Time used to pass so slowly when I was a kid”, but the older we grow, the faster time goes by. And it should be the other way round. Because most children are wasting their time. I remember as a child I wanted to grow up more quickly; I couldn’t wait to become an adult. And now when I am an adult, I wish I had stayed there longer. But I feel somehow that we have albeit little control over that, because in our everyday lives we have the ability to slow down time. Actually most of our occupations are just a waste of time. To me sitting in front of the TV set is a waste of time; I removed my TV set at home, I no longer have one. And now I am able to read a bit from time to time. But because I travel a great deal, there are always TV sets in hotel rooms, and I always turn them off. People spend hours and hours zapping TV channels. So, after all, I believe we can control time.

When I was making my films I had no idea I was an author. I was very happy that I can make them and it was not until my fourth film that I realized I had a voice of my own, because what I had done to that point was imitating other films. And then I realized there was something bigger than me even, and that I could imitate my own voice if I liked. This is a very big danger for every artist that they might start imitating themselves. Commercial cinema imitates certain patterns and apparently this is not artistic cinema, because even in artistic cinema, if the author started imitating themselves, they cease to be authors. But you can’t tell yourself you should avoid this trap. I myself do not always manage not to fall into it, and I found out my own way of dealing with that is making a film, in which at the beginning I am not quite aware what it is going to be about. Because such films are something I try to understand through these films. And in this way I manage to speak in my own voice. And it is only then that I can be an author, so I am trying, but I do not always succeed.

I guess God is watching us and sometimes He has a lot of fun, but I also think He must suffer a great deal. I have a strange theory of my own. In my opinion God does not watch us, but it is rather He sees through our eyes. And what He sees is the sum of our eyes. So, we all contribute a little bit to what God sees. We believe that seeing and watching is something that just happens, but seeing, watching can be an act of love, an expression of love, and looking at a person can be a token of love. It can also be a look of disgust or tedium, or something of the kind. So, every look has its own attitude. And the attitude is the way you look at life; you can look with love, so that we can bear a responsibility and contribute to what God sees.


Transcript by Ivayla Alexandrova

The main programme of the 13th edition of Sofia International Film Festival finished on March 15th in the overcrowded Hall 1 of the National Palace of Culture with performance of the group Baba Zula and Gala screening of Wim Wenders’ new movie “Palermo Shooting”.

During the festival were presented 262 films (100 features, 50 documentaries, 112 short) from all over the world. The number of the international guest was 228 – among them directors, producers, actors, festival directors, media and cinema experts.

The Award ceremony of the festival took place at the National Palace of Culture on March 14th.

THE INTERNATIONAL JURY:
Janos Szasz (Hungary) – director, chairman of the jury
Doror Eran (Israel) – producer and director
Momchil Karamitev (Bulgaria - USA) – actor
Elena Yoncheva (Bulgaria) – journalist
Stefan Arsenijevich (Serbia) – director

Decided:

The GRAND PRIX Award for best feature film goes to the film “FOR MY FATHER” (Israel-Germany) directed by Dror Zahavi. This co-production of Israel and Germany is brave film dealing with impossible love with humor and humanism.
The award is a diploma, trophy and a prize of 5,000 Euro and it was presented by the chairman of the jury Janos Szasz to the director Dror Zahavi.

THE BEST DIRECTOR AWARD from the International Competition provided by UBB (United Bulgarian Bank) goes to Ozcan Alper for his debut film “AUTUMN” (Turkey-Germany). The film is powerful, challenging and emotional cinematic journey from life to death
The award is diploma and cash money prize of 1,000 Euro and was presented to the director Ozcan Alper by the jury members Stefan Arsenijevich and Momchil Karamitev.

The international jury gave a SPECIAL MENTION award to the film “ZIFT” (Bulgaria) and to the director Javor Gurdev - welcoming the first film noir in the Bulgarian National Cinema. The award is a diploma, presented by the jury-members Elena Yoncheva and Doror Eran to the producers of the film Ilyan Djevelekov and Matey Konstantinov.

JAMESON SHORT FILM AWARD FOR BEST BULGARIAN SHORT FILM goes to “Three Sisters and Andrey” (Bulgaria-Germany) by the directors Boris Despodov and Andrey Paounov for original, intensive and sophisticated revisiting of classical literature in animation.
The award is a diploma, a trophy and a prize of 6,000 Euro, provided by Jameson Irish Whiskey. The award was presented by Michael Borre, Regional Manager at Irish Distillers, and Wim Wenders who succeeded to see Despodov and Paounov’s film and personally greeted them for the high quality of their creation.

THE INTERNATIONAL JURY FOR DOCUMENTARIES:
Adela Peeva (director) – Bulgaria, Chairperson
Pavel Stingl (dirctor) – Czech Republic
Adina Pintilie (director) – Romania

Gave the BEST DOCUMENTARY AWARD provided by Bulgarian National Television to the film “RENE” (Czech Republic) to the director Helena Trestikova. It’s a film that captures the very essence of documentary filmmaking as because through long-term persistent observation of a character’s life over 20 years. It becomes an intimate symbiosis between life and film and, ultimately, an “act of love”.
The award is diploma and cash money prize of 1,000 Euro for the director and another cash money prize of 2,000 Euro with an option the film to be bought and screened by Bulgarian National Television. This award is conceived and provided by Bulgarian National Television and was presented at the ceremony by the chairperson of the documentary jury Adela Peeva and the member of the Board of Directors of BNT Sevda Shishmanova to the Director of the Czech Center in Sofia Mr. Michael Pospisil.
Director Wim Wenders especially pointed out the importance of the international documentary competition and declared his respect to the Bulgarian National Television for it’s decision to support the initiative. The documentary competition will become one of the main events of the 14-th Sofia Film Festival – in the year 2010 it’s expected the number of film applications from Bulgaria and all over the world to increase in remarkable scale especially for that competition. Sofia International Film Festival thanks to the directors Andrey Paunov and Boris Despodov who selected the films, participated in this year’s competition which was at remarkable high level.

THE KODAK AWARD FOR BEST BULGARIAN FEATURE FILM goes to “ZIFT” (Bulgaria) and to the director Javor Gurdev.
The award is a diploma, a trophy, film negative and laboratory services amounted of 2,000 USD, the recipients are the director Javor Gurdev and director of photography Emil Hristov. The award was presented by the representative of Kodak Cinelab Bulgaria – Krassimira Borisova to producer of the film Ilyan Djevelekov.

THE NO MAN’S LAND AWARD FOR BEST BALKAN FILM from the Bulgarian film critics’ guild goes to „MY MARLON AND BRANDO” (Turkey) by the director Hueseyin Karabey. The award is a diploma, trophy with a special bottle (N 1) of vine “Kometa No Man’s Land 2006” and box of wine No Man’s Land provided by Damianitza. The award was presented by the chairperson of the Bulgarian Film Critics’ Guild Antonia Kovacheva and producers of the film “No Man’s Land” Cédomir Kolar and Dunja Klemenc.

THE FIPRESCI JURY
Einar Staalesen (Norway)
Tonci Valentic (Croatia)
Ingeborg Bratoeva (Bulgaria)

gives THE FIPRESCI AWARD to the film “THE HAPPIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD” (Romania) by the director Radu Jude. The award is a diploma and was presented by Ingeborg Bratoeva to the director Radu Jude.

THE AUDIENCE AWARD for the audience favourite movie goes to Takeshi Kitano’s film “ACHILLES AND THE TURTLE” (Japan)
The Award, provided by Sofia Municipality, is a diploma, a cash money prize of 1,000 BGN and was announced by the Deputy Mayor of Sofia in charge of the culture and education, Mrs. Yordanka Fandakova. The cash money prize will be delivered to the distributor of the film who acquires the rights for Bulgaria..

During the 13th edition of Sofia International Film Festival the SOFIA MUNICIPALITY AWARD for Contribution in CInema was given to:
MICHAEL PALIN, actor, screenwriter and TV narrator (UK)
NIKOLA KORABOV, director (Bulgaria)
The awards were presented by the Deputy Mayor for culture, Mrs. Yordanka Fandakova.

One special initiative - Sofia Short Challenge took place in cooperation with “Cinemafia:. A Competition for 168-hours short films’ creation was announced at the Opening Gala of the festival – the theme was “comedy” with three ingredients – “hitchhike”, “producer” and “wedding”. 34 films were made and a jury of three members – director and artist Sigfrid (France), director Alexander Hahn (Austria-Latvia) and actress Maya Novoselska (Bulgaria) decided: the BEST FILM is “Vulgarity Times”, made by the team Shameless Eyes; the BEST ANIMATION is “Four Lock”, made by team “Asparta”. The awards are accreditations and accommodations for Sarajevo Film Festival 2009, they were presented to the winners right after the Baba Zula’s performance by the group’s frontman Murat Ertel.

The theme – “Sofia Today”, for a special photo competition organized in cooperation with dnes.bg and Stars Travel, was announced also at the Festival Opening on the March 5th. 71 were the participants in the competition, 238 were the number of all photographs, all of them uploaded on the site dnes.bg. The famous director and guest of the festival Wim Wenders and his wife, renown photographer Donata Wenders, made their choice. The AWARD FOR BEST PHOTO – a weekend for two in Palermo, provided by Stars Travel, was presented by Wenders and the general manager of the agency Stars Travel Zornitsa Karamihova right before the screening of the latest Wenders’ film – “Palermo Shooting”. The lucky recipient is the photographer Petko Stamenov. Wim Wenders promised to share with the winner some secrets from the city in which most of the story took place in his latest movie, including where exactly is the cosiest and most romantic place in Palermo.

British Council presents new feature, documentary and short films from the United Kingdom
Michael Palin receives the Award of Sofia Municipality

To celebrate its 75th anniversary British Council will present a very powerful and diverse film programme at the 13th edition of Sofia International Film Festival.

The film that has 10 Oscar nominations, 4 Golden Globes and 7 BAFTAs will give pleasure to the admirers of contemporary British cinema with a special gala screening on March 10 at 8 p.m. at Number One Hall of the National Palace of Culture.

Director Danny Boyle, whose previous hits “Trainspotting” (1996) and “The Beach” (2000) were well-received by the Bulgarian audience, surprised the cinema fans with the story he chose to tell in his latest feature “Slumdog Millionaire”. Based on the novel by Vikas Svarup „Q & A”, it relates the story of Jamal Malik (starring Dev Patel in his acting debut), an 18-year-old orphan from Mumbai’s slums, who is about to experience the most exciting day of his life. The eyes of the whole nation are in his play while he performs in the Indian version of “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?”, as he is a only a question away from the big prize to the tune of 20 million rupees. The host gets suspicious that the boy may be a fraud and hands him over to the police. How could possibly a child from the street know so many things? Will he manage to persuade the police of his innocence? In order to prove his right, Jamal begins telling the story of his life in the slums, where he grew up with his brother. There is of course Latika, the girl he loves (performed by Freyda Pinto). Each of these life experiences gives the exact answer to each of the questions in the game. Each of the pieces of the puzzle fits perfectly into the panel in front of the eyes of the audience, until the story is complete, and you realize that love has the last word.
“Slumdog Millionaire” shattered the world of cinema and demonstrated his skills to make original and remarkable productions regardless of the low budget.

One of the most eagerly anticipated films in the British cinema programme is the film “In Bruges”, for which Colin Farrell won a Golden Globe for his performance of a hitman.
For director and screenplay writer Martin McDonagh “In Bruges” is a very successful debut, because it is a gangster story that has incredible characters, absurd situations and entangled plot turns worthy of the best of Guy Ritchie and Quentin Tarantino. Sofia International Film Festival is still expecting confirmation from Colin Farrell for his attendance of the film’s special screening with the framework of the Festival.

Director Gerald McMorrow offers an ambitious and impressive feature debut “Franklyn” and his film is in the international competition of the 13th edition of Sofia International Film Festival. McMorrow sets himself no easy visual and conceptual tasks but achieves them with grace. The story opens in the futuristic City-Beyond-Time, where the protagonist (Ryan Philippe) has to carry out yet another contract murder. What follows is an urban fairy tale that will be received with great enthusiasm by the admirers of the peculiar worlds of the future the way we know them from Terry Gilliam’s films “V for Vendetta” or “Blade Runner”. McMorrow crosses the boundary between the real and imaginary world of the characters with ease; and blends various film genres with the respective visual aesthetics in a masterly way.

Experienced director Shane Meadows, whom the Bulgarian cinema lovers know from his films “24/7” and “This Is England”, will present his latest urban and low-budget film wrought with dark humour – “Somers Town”. Two boys become friends trying to live together their dreams. What follows is a story, whose characters do not want to be like their parents and seek refuge in friendship. The spectators will see a sad Meadows, who together with screenplay writer Paul Frazer, with whom he works traditionally, offers a touching and simple story of outsiders, who have to fight the circumstances in life.

Among the highlights of the British films special attention deserves the screen adaptation of John Boyne’s best-selling novel “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas”, a very powerful ‘translation of the novel’ onto the silver screen made by director Mark Herman. The film is a story of an 8-year-old German boy, whose father is the commander of a Nazi camp. The film relates the way a child grasps the idea of the Holocaust. The plot kicks off when the 8-year-old Bruno (performed by 11-year-old Asa Butterfield) sneaks away from home and goes to the barbed wire, where he meets Shmuel, a boy his age (performed by Jack Scanlan). The film traces the forbidden friendship until their fates become inextricably woven. “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas” combines authenticity with proven acting skills.

Peter Neal’s “Room Full of Mirrors” based on the documentary tale of the life and music of one of the icons of the 1960s, Jimi Hendrix is considered one of the important events of the festival and also probably the best film about the guitar virtuoso. In 1996 he completed a two-hour version of the film, but Jimi Hendrix’s heirs were against the making and promoting of the film “Room Full of Mirrors”. In 2000 the film was presented at the festival in Grahamstown (Republic of South Africa) as part of a panorama of Peter Neal’s films, and then once more in Cape Town, where the audience was thrilled. Admission to the screening of the film at Sofia International Film Festival will be free and will be dedicated to the memory of drummer Mitch Mitchell and the legendary Jimi Hendrix. Mitchell arrived for the inaugural edition of the Rock Film Festival in 1993, and the visit was supported by the British Council. Peter Neal attended then as guest and presented the first film ever made about Jimi Hendrix, “Experience”. Many years later Neal is in Sofia again to present his latest masterpiece.

An important highlight of the Focus on British cinema at this year’s edition of Sofia International Film Festival will be the special visit by the incredible actor, comedian and famous TV host and traveler Michael Palin. He will arrive on March 8 to receive the Award of the Municipality of Sofia for his merits to cinema and television.

There will be a focus on British documentary and short films within the framework of the 13th edition of Sofia International Film Festival.

“The English Surgeon” by Geoffrey Smith is one of the documentary entries in the competition. It tells the story of British brain surgeon Henry Marsh, who, led by his vocation has saved many people’s lives, but comes across circumstances that might ruin his career. He faces the same dilemma during his mission to Ukraine, where he has to tackle once more the true doctor-patient relationship.

“About time and the city” of British director Terence Davies offers a side look at Liverpool, the city that gave the world “Beatles” and one of the most successful clubs in the history of English football. At a closer look Liverpool might look rather unattractive. But Terence Davies’ film is a poetic image of the city, where the truly important ones are the ordinary citizens.

Here are some of the British short films: „Joy” of Joe Lawler and Christine Malloy, „Ripple” by Paul Gowers, as well as “Love You More” by Sam Taylor-Wood, written by Oscar-nominated Patrick Marber and produced by Oscar winner Anthony Minghella in cooperation with Caroline Harvey and the authors of the film. Oscar-nominated director of photography Seamus MacGarvey has made the film „Love You More”, whose world premiere was within the official selection of Cannes 2008. There are also „Soft” by Simon Ellis, „The Apology Line” by James Lease, „Ela” by Sylvana Aguire Zegara and „Mash Up” by Jessie Lawrence.

There are 13 British animation films at Sofia International Film Festival: „Keith Reynolds Can’t Make It Tonight” by Felix Massie; „The Black Dog’s Progress” by Stpehen Irwin, „Time Is Running Out” by Mark Risebig, „Cat Man Do” by Simon Toffield, „Stand Up” by Joseph Pierce, „The Pearce Sisters” by Louis Cook, „Adjustment” by Ian McKinnan, „Milk Teeth” by Tibor Banotzky, „John And Karen” by Matthew Walker, „This Way Up” by Smith & Foulkes, „Yours Truly” by Osbert Parker, „Procrastination” by Johnny Kelly, and „Like Me, Only Better” by Martin Piccles.

As in the festival’s previous editions British Council and the National Academy of Theatre and Film Art present jointly an initiative targeted at the young professionals. The first working meeting of the project Opening the Market will take place on March 9-11 at the National Academy of Theatre and Film Art in Sofia, where the discussion will be laid on the possibilities for opening the market for theatre makers and the performing arts in South East Europe, as well as in the United Kingdom. The forum will analyze the common challenges to young professionals upon competing their education and successful practices from the United Kingdom and the other participating countries will be presented.

Do not miss the BRITISH CINEMA at the 13th edition of Sofia International Film Festival with the special assistance of the British Council.

For a seventh year in a row Sofia International Film Festival will award the Grand Prix for best feature film in the International Competition (for First or Second Feature Film of directors from all over the world). An international jury will confer the main prizes of the 13th International Sofia Film Festival. The president of the jury is Hungarian director Janos Szasz. Sitting also on the panel will be Israeli producer and director Doron Eran, Bulgarian actor Momchil Karamitev, residing and working in the United States and Italy, renowned Bulgarian journalist Elena Yoncheva and Serbian director Stefan Arsenijevic (winner of the Best Director Award at the 12th edition of Sofia International Film Festival, 2008). The special award giving ceremony will take place on March 14, 2009. The Grand Prix includes a diploma and a cheque for EUR 5 000.

These are the entries in the official competition of the 13th edition of Sofia International Film Festival:

Bahrtalo! (Good Luck!) – Hungary, directed by Robert Lakatos
Possible Lives – Argentina, directed by Sandra Gugliotta
Zift – Bulgaria, directed by Javor Gardev
Autumn – Turkey, directed by Özcan Alper
Cumbia Calera – Mexico, directed by Rene Villareal
Baksy – Russia-Kazakhstan-France-Germany, directed by Gulshat Omarova
For My Father – Israel - Germany, directed by Dror Zahavi
The Firm Land – France-India-Iran, directed by Chapour Haghighat
The Happiest Girl in the World – Romania, directed by Radu Jude
Awaking from a Dream – Spain, directed by Freddy Mas Franqueza
Franklyn – The United Kingdom, directed by Gerald McMorrow
Chiko – Germany, directed by Ozgur Yildirim

Hungarian director Robert Lakatos is a filmmaker of documentaries, whose original point of view has been widely acknowledged. In 2004 he took part with the short film “Across the Border: Five Views from Neighbours” – a film journey across Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia, and a multilingual portrait of the ideas of borders at the beginning of the 21st century. Lakatos’ feature film debut Bahrtalo! Good Luck! won the Label Europa Cinemas Award at the International Film Festival in Karlovy Vary in 2008. Two friends from Transylvania are trying to implement their entrepreneurial ideas, such as buying second-hand equipment from Austria and re-selling it at home, or a journey to Egypt with a dog, for instance. In this neorealism comedy, the two protagonists exhume naturalness and solve their problems any way they can. The camera accompanies a true friendship that goes through different countries and different cultures.

The Argentinean film Possible Lives is the second feature film of director and producer Sandra Gugliotta (Argentine). The plot evolves around the pretty geologist Carla, who has been looking for her missing husband, and is at the same time haunted by a man who bears a striking resemblance to him. The film has already won the acclaim of the audience and the juries at international festivals. In 2007 it was nominated for the Golden Leopard at the International Film Festival in Locarno, and Sandra Gugliotta won an honorary diploma from the jury. The leading role performed by the young Ana Celentano won the actress awards in Argentina and a number of roles in huge international productions.

The film debut of the successful Bulgarian stage director Javor Gardev, Zift, became one of the phenomena of 2008. Zift is a „film noir” with allusions to socialist art – because of the freedom of expression with which Gardev juggles with the conventions of post-modernism. The protagonist is released from prison more than 40 years ago, and passes a night of meetings and disclosures – about the new times and the socialist regime, the accomplice who betrayed him and the woman he loves. The film won the highest distinction for Bulgarian cinema in recent years – the Silver George Award for Best Director at the Moscow Film Festival in 2008. With its audience of 36 000 people “Zift” is a record holder in the Bulgarian box-office for the past 20 years.

Autumn (Turkey-Germany) is the feature film debut of director Ozcan Alper with the support of the Turkish Culture Ministry and has already enjoyed a rich record of festival screenings. It is a film full of peace, beauty and wisdom – a look at the lives we have chosen and that go past us; a look at the people whom we meet and with whom we part. A young man comes out of prison for reasons of poor health having done 10 years of a sentence for political beliefs and participation in the student riots against the government in the late 1990s. The only option Yusuf has is to return to his native village. Driven by his concern for his elderly mother, he tries to communicate with other people, and even goes to town. There he meets a kind and sad woman forced to work as a prostitute because she supports a daughter and a mother in her native Georgia. The two find mutual comfort, but sickness and nature are sometimes merciless especially in the sad, rainy autumn.

The Mexican film Cumbia Callera was directed by Rene Villareal. His previous experience as assistant director in TV and Hollywood blockbusters, such as “The Mexican”, contributed to the success of his feature debut, which he wrote, edited and produced. Cumbia Callera is the result of many years of preparation. It is about the difficult lives of three young people in the megapolis of Monterey, where contrasts rule, and luxury meets penury and violence.

Kazakhstan-born Gulshat Omarova has studied with Sergey Bodrov, who is also co-writer of her second feature film, Baksy, a co-production of Russia-Kazakhstan-France-Germany. Omarova has already impressed the audience in Sofia with her debut feature, “Schizo”, which, when it appeared in 2004, was considered one of the most successful debut films of the Kazakh ‘new wave’. “Schizo” garnered a host of international distinctions for director Omarova – the FIPRESCI prize for a debut film at Cinetaur festival, the Grand Prix from Kotbus, Best Female Director from Copenhagen, etc. “Baksy” is the traditional Kazakh word for a healer, in this case Ajdaj, who will not let her land become an oil refinery. Omarova intertwines magical realism into a gangster plot, adds a touch of comedy, the natural behaviour of the local people and the particular beauty of the landscape.

The film For My Father directed by Dror Zahavi (Israel) won the audience award at the Moscow International Film Festival and was nominated in seven of the categories of the Israeli Academy of Film. The characters meet one weekend in Tel-Aviv. The young Palestinian Tarek makes friends with 17-year-old rebel Keren and her neighbour Katz, a Jew, who lost his son in the insane war conflicts that tear the Middle East apart to this day. They are all forced to accept the other person with their differences – religion, beliefs, attitude toward life and the world. The film is a remarkable tableau of a world that may look distant, but is imprinted on the mind and soul of the spectator.

The Happiest Girl in the World directed by Radu Jude is the Romanian entry in the international competition of Sofia International Film Festival. Written and directed by Radu Jude it tells the story of a Romanian family, whose unity is threatened because of a lucky coincidence – the 18-year-old daughter wins a brand new car. Despite the fact that “The Happiest Girl in the World” was a debut film, the critics already included it into the remarkable upsurge of the young Romanian cinema, presented traditionally at Sofia International Film Festival by the likes of Cristi Puiu and Cristian Mungiu, who won the Palme d’Or.

The audience of Sofia International Film Festival is familiar with Iranian writer, playwright and director Chapour Haghighat because of his 2006 feature debut “The Nightly Song of the Travellers”. His second feature film, The Firm Land (2008) is a co-production France-India-Iran and has been selected for many prestigious festivals all over the world. Haghighat wrote and produced the film that takes us to the shores of the Indian Ocean, where the local dwellers seek salvation from a deadly epidemic.

Awaking from a Dream (Spain) is the ambitious debut of Freddy Mas Franqueza. The story was inspired partly by the director’s personal experience. The project was supported by the Spanish Foundation against Alzheimer’s disease, and one of the film’s strengths is the unmasked presentation of the condition, even through the innocent eyes of child actor Sergio Padilla. The 70-year-old Pascal lives alone in a small Spanish town, but is unable to get used to the loneliness and old age. His daughter leaves her son with him and soon the two become good friends. They take care of one another and give each other the love that often is missing in people’s lives. The film was met with favourable criticism when it was screened in Chicago, Pussan (South Korea) and Moscow.

It may look strange when an independent director such as Gerald McMorrow offers an ambitious and impressive feature debut Franklyn (The United Kingdom). McMorrow sets himself no easy visual and conceptual tasks but achieves them with grace. The story opens in the futuristic City-Beyond-Time, where the protagonist (Ryan Philippe) has to carry out yet another contract murder. What follows is an urban fairy tale that will be received with great enthusiasm by the admirers of the peculiar worlds of the future the way we know them from Terry Gilliam’s films “V for Vendetta” or “Blade Runner”. McMorrow crosses the boundary between the real and imaginary world of the characters with ease; and blends various film genres with the respective visual aesthetics in a masterly way.

Hamburg-born director Ozgur Yildirim is the author of the film Chiko. This is his feature debut, but success comes quickly after it has been selected for the Panorama section of Berlinale 2008. He has made three short films that have been presented at European film festivals. “Chiko” was produced by Corazon Productions, Fatih Akin’s independent company, and is likely to win the acclaim of the audiences at various international festivals. The plot is a classical one – two friends, who grew up together, are petty drug dealers, but dream of something bigger. After a meeting with the local Hamburg drug baron things get out of control, especially when notions such as integrity and betrayal come to play a part.

Cinema Lumiere
08 March, 16:30

ОN 08.03.09 FROM 20:30 IN “LIUMIER” CINEMA WILL BE SCREENED THE FILM “CUMBILLA CALLERA” INSTEAD OF “IN BRUGE”

Wim Wenders awards the winner!

On March 5, 2009 with the opening of the 13th edition of Sofia International Film Festival, a photography contest was launched under the motto “SOFIA TODAY” that is open to everyone. It will end with the closing date of the festival, March 15, 2009, just before the screening of Wim Wenders’ latest film “Palermo Shooting” that inspired the idea of the current photography competition.

The co-organizers of the contest, the 13th edition of Sofia International Film Festival and the Dnes.bg news portal, part of the Investor.BG Ltd, will come up with a respected judging panel that will evaluate the entries. The photographs, which will be posted on a daily basis in a special section on the Dnes.bg portal, have to be submitted in the period March 6-13, 2009.

During the eight days in question everyone who wishes to prove their artistic potential, talent and creativity, is able to take pictures and send their own snapshots of reality at fotokonkurs@dnes.bg. The 20 best photographs will be presented to Wim Wenders and his wife Donata Wenders, a famous photographer, who will arrive as special guests to the 13th edition of Sofia International Film Festival.

Wim Wenders has been an enthusiastic photographer and master of the image for many years. That is why together with wife Donata Wenders he will select the winner of the photography competition, who will snatch the Grand Prix – a weekend for two persons in Palermo, provided by the Stars Travel agency!!! The best photographs will be displayed in a special exhibition at the Cinema House that will open on March 16, 2009.

Please, remember the terms for participation:
* Be at Number One Hall of the National Palace of Culture on March 5 to find out the topic of the contest, and if you miss the opportunity – go to the web page of Dnes.bg as soon as possible, so as not to waste time!
* Take out your favourite camera and let your imagination run free!
* Take the best possible quality and most inspired pictures!
* Send them to fotokonkurs@dnes.bg so that you, your friends and their friends are able to see them on Dnes.bg!
* Complete the above-mentioned by March 13 at the latest, because on March 14 the judging panel will shortlist the 20 finalists and will evaluate your artistic skills!
* Return to Number One Hall of the National Palace of Culture on March 15, 2009, because you may be the one to receive from the legendary Wim Wenders IN PERSON a wonderful prize for your photographic inspiration – a weekend for two persons in sunny Palermo!
* And even if you are not the winner, you still may be among the first Bulgarian spectators of Wim Wenders’ latest film, “Palermo Shooting”. Do not miss this opportunity!

Photography competition of the 13th edition of Sofia International Film Festival and Dnes.bg – you could become the winner of the inaugural edition!

06 March 2009, 19:30

CINEMA HOUSE

Welcome!

The forum will gather in one place film directors, producers, fund directors and people in charge of festival selections March 12-14 in Sofia.

It has become a tradition that Sofia Meetings is the venue where pitching, i.e. the public presentation of a film project before an audience of film producers for a debut, second and third feature film of young European filmmakers, takes place. Festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, Karlovy Vary and Moscow count very much on identifying the new cinematic trends at similar fora, and also to ‘discover’ new directors.

This project has been implemented in Bulgaria since 2004 as part of Sofia International Film Festival. The projects that were presented in the first year turned out later one of the most often awarded European films: “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu” by Cristi Puiu won the Un Certain Regard Award at Cannes in 2005 heralding thus the rise of Romanian cinema, and also the Hungarian film “Delta” by Kornel Mundruczo, which was in the official competition at Cannes in 2008. The ratio of the successfully implemented film projects is high, but the actual objective of the event is to act as a springboard for independent European cinema towards successful implementation and distribution.

In fact some of the most interesting Balkan filmmakers from Serbia, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia and Macedonia have taken part in the annual pitching since 2004. But of course, Sofia Meetings’ greatest contribution remains to new Bulgarian cinema with the opportunities to meet world film producers, people in charge of festival selections and film distributors all in one place. At special Balkan Screenings officials charged with the selection of films for the festivals in Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Kotbus, Tallinn, Moscow, Thessaloniki, San Sebastian, Karlovy Vary and Warsaw are able to watch unfinished Bulgarian and Balkan films. Owing to this practice the young Bulgarian cinema has had a very successful record of festival awards in recent years: “Investigation” by Iglika Trifonova, “The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner” by Stephan Komandarev, “Mila from Mars” by Zornitza Sophia, “Zift” by Javor Gardev, “Lady Zee” by Georgi Djulgerov, “Stolen Eyes” by Radoslav Spassov, “Monkeys in Winter” by Milena Andonova, “Christmas Tree Upside Down” by Ivan Tscherkelov and Vasil Zhivkov, “Georgi and the Butterflies” and “The Mosquito Problem and Other Stories” by Andrey Paounov and “Whose Is This Song?” by Adela Peeva.

Producers of international and national film funds hold one-to-one meetings with the authors of projects that are interesting for co-producing, and the likes of Nick Powell (Richard Branson’s associate at Virgin from the very beginning, producer of the feature film “The Crying Game” and currently Director of the UK National School of Film and Television), Simon Perry (one of the most successful British producers and Director of the Irish Film Fund) and Karl Baumgartner (who has produced films by Emir Kusturica, Aki Kaurismaki, Chen Kaige, Leos Carax, Bakhtyar Khudojnazarov, including “The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner” by Bulgarian director Stephan Komandarev) come to Sofia Meetings regularly.

This year the Sofia Meetings programme includes also round table discussions and various trainings. The forum takes off on March 12 with working sessions and closed door screenings of Bulgarian and Balkan films.

The pitching process will encompass this year documentary cinema in line with the ‘Sunny Side of the Doc’ initiative, which is in fact one of the most respected markets for documentary films that holds annual sessions in various European capitals. They have chosen Sofia as host city also because of the Best Documentary Film Award, which last year went to the Bulgarian film “The Mosquito Problem and Other Stories” by Andrey Paounov. The “Rendezvous with Sofia” conference for co-productions organized in partnership with Sofia Meetings has the ambition to present the current practices of distribution of feature and documentary films in Central and Eastern Europe.

The traditional distribution channels hinder the development of the film market in Eastern Europe, which creates the need of an alternative solution. That is why the focus of discussions will be laid on the state-of-the-art distribution channels, such as Video on Demand and Cinema on Demand. This alternative means of distribution are yet to be established because they offer consumers the opportunity to watch new films via their cable TV operator or Internet provider, with film airings taking place only once and in exchange of a small fee. The new platforms are expected to give a chance to the local producers and directors to discover their new audience in a new way.

Jerome Paillard, executive director of the Cannes Film Festival’s Marche du Film (the world’s biggest film market) and Roberto Olla, Executive Director of the Secretariat of Eurimages, will arrive for the sixth edition of Sofia Meetings. For the first time directors from Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Turkey and Albania will present projects for films within the framework of the Sofia CineLinks Sarajevo project.

Here are some of the directors who will present their film projects at this year’s edition of Sofia Meetings: Radu Jude from Romania, Jan Cvitkovic from Slovenia, Kakha Kakhabidze from Georgia and a very powerful Bulgarian presence in the face of Boris Despodov, Andrey Paounov, Stephan Komandarev, Dimiter Mitovski and Konstantin Boyanov. Huseyin Karabey from Turkey, whose film “My Marlon and Brando” is in the programme of the 13th edition of Sofia International Film Festival, and Chapour Haghighat, whose film “The Firm Land” is in the international competition, will present their new film projects, as well.

The German Robert Bosch Fund will run pitching trainings for Bulgarian film projects they have selected parallel to Sofia Meetings. They will organize also a meeting with German film producers, who will arrive in Sofia to discover young Bulgarian filmmakers and encourage them to take part in co-productions.

Sofia Meetings will take place March 12-14, 2009 at the Military Club in Sofia with the support of the MEDIA programme of the European Union, the National Film Centre, Nu Boyana Film, the Municipality of Sofia, etc. We shall give you more details at the special press conference dedicated to that event, which will take place Monday, March 9, at 11 a.m. at MATTI club.

At a special screening on March 21, 2009 at 9 p.m. at the Cinema House in Sofia, Sofia International Film Festival will present the most successful screen adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita”.

The longlasting partnership between Sofia International Film Festival and the Bulgarian National Television decided to support one of the most successful and popular campaigns of the Bulgarian National Television (BNT), “The Big Read”, by presenting the 12 favourite novels of the Bulgarians and the documentary films created by popular contemporary TV and film directors, as well as distinguished public figures supporting their own choice of a novel. This will take place February 28, 2009 at the Cinema House in Sofia. Filmmakers Petar Popzlatev, Stephan Komandarev, Stoyan Radev, Boyko Vassilev, Svetoslav Draganov, Milena Andonova, Andrey Slabakov, Atanas Dimitrov, Boris Despodov, Vladimir Lyutzkanov, Luchezar Avramov and Milko Lazarov will give their vote in support of their favourite novel and reading in general by their short films dedicated to the finalists of the “Big Read” contest.

The dozen finalists of the “Big Read” have already been inscribed into the golden pages of world literature – “Count Monte Christo”, “The Little Prince”, “One Hundred Years of Solitude”, “A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, “East of Eden”, “The Lord of the Rings”, “The Master and Margarita”, and the Bulgarian masterpiece novels “Time of Parting”, “Tobacco”, “Doomed Souls”, “The Iron Oil Lamp” and “Under the Yoke”.

Over the years each of the 12 classical novels has provoked the experience and imagination of a legion of filmmakers. The seventh art has tried to become on a par with the written word. The result is many distinctions and prestigious awards and the biggest of them all – even greater interest in the classical masterpieces of the world literature. It is not an easy task to make a film based on a novel that has become classics. However the screen adaptations of the 12 finalists in the “Big Read” campaign of the Bulgarian National Television have been more than just successful and have definitely urged the spectator to look for the literary original, if they had not done so.

There will be a special screening at the 13th edition of Sofia International Film Festival of Vladimir Borthko’s screen adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita”, some of which was shot on location in Bulgaria. The film will be screened on March 21 at an extraordinary night screening and all the installments of the TV series will be shown one after the other!!!
The airing of the TV version of “The Master and Margarita” turned out the greatest event in Russia at the end of 2006. The enthusiasm was caused also by another fact: there has always been a great deal of mystery surrounding the novel, including the one that the novel has been cursed not to give way to screen adaptation. In order to dissipate the tensions director Vladimir Borthko told the media: “There is no mystery! The reason why until now the novel was not made into a film was a trivial one: in the Soviet Union there was ideology, while in post-Soviet Russia – money was lacking.”
In fact the novel “The Master and Margarita” has several screen adaptations. The first one was made by Polish director Andrzej Wajda, who in 1971 shot the film “Pilate and Others” using only the bible characters’ episodes from the novel. A year later the Italian-Yugoslav co-production of director Alexander Petrovic was released, but it turned out an anti-Soviet satire to a great extent.
Elem Klimov tried to adapt the novel to the silver screen, and plans had been made to involve Hollywood in the venture, but everything fell apart before it even started. In 1988 another Pole, Macek Wojtisko, made a seven-installment TV series, which enjoyed no success at all. Meanwhile there has not been a single great Russian filmmaker, Andrey Tarkovsky, Eldar Ryazanov, Elem Klimov, you name them, who has not tried to have his own version of “The Master and Margarita” and for one reason or another has not failed.
The only project that survived was to the credit of Yuri Kara, but it all ended with a court case between the director and the producers of the film about copyright, while at the same time the film ‘disappeared mysteriously’, as media wrote, from the director’s drawer. It was later found in a private collection.
There are a few foreign adaptations in the 1970s and 1980s, but the several attempts of Russian filmmakers in the 1990s ended in failure. Borthko admits that he had problems with the casting and that the film’s premiere had been delayed because of technical shortcomings. The TV series consists of 10 installments and is worth EUR 4.2 million. One-third of the film is dedicated to special effects.
For the feline character of Begemot, Borthko had received an offer of a robot from Hollywood worth USD 3 million, but the director had preferred the combination of a real cat, an actor and a mechanical device that makes the eyes of the cat blink. The film was shot on location in Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Crimea, Bulgaria and Israel.

The first 9 films dedicated to the “The Big Read” finalists will be screened February 28-March 4 at the Cinema House in Sofia. The last three ones dedicated to “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, “One Hundred Years of Solitude” and “Tobacco” will have additional screenings, whose times and dates will be announced later.

The 168-hour film challenge, Sofia Short Challenge, is going to have its premiere during the 13th edition of Sofia International Film Festival. The genre in which the filmmaking crews will compete in the inaugural year is ‘comedy’. Instead of a subject matter, we shall announce the names of three ingredients on which the films ought to be based. The final versions of the short films have to be submitted in exactly 168 hours or 1 week later.

The topic will be announced at the Festival’s opening at 8 p.m. on March 5, 2009, at Number One Hall of the National Palace of Culture. It will also be posted on the festival’s web page www.cinema.bg/sff. The registration of the participants at cinemafia.bg@gmail.com is compulsory and should be completed before 8 p.m. March 7, 2009. After this deadline the applications will not be considered at all! The films ought to be submitted between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. March 12, 2009 in the lobby of Lumiere cinema hall. Again after deadline expiration no entries will be accepted!

In order to present the most valuable and significant works of the young Bulgarian cinema, all films are subject to a preliminary selection process. Nadezhda Koseva and Andrey Paounov have been credited the responsibility.

The screening and the award ceremony of the films from the „Sofia Short Challenge” programme will take place on March 15, 2009 at 12 a.m. at Lumiere cinema hall. The shortlisted candidates will be notified by e-mail that their film has been selected for screening.

A colourful international jury consisting of Siegfried, Alexander Hahn and Maya Novoselska will give out the prizes for best feature and best animation film. The authors of the awarded short films will be accredited for Sarajevo Film Festival and their works will be screened before the festival audience there.

BABA ZULA will play the final note of the 13th edition of Sofia International Film Festival on March 15, 2009. The virtuoso performers first came to Bulgaria in 2005 to present live the soundtrack to Fatih Akin’s documentary masterpiece Crossing the Bridge: the Sound of Istanbul. Luckily for their fans in Bulgaria, the 2008 edition of Sofia International Film Festival closed with a BABA ZULA concert.

Those who have heard them have instantly fallen in love with the unconventional and particularly impressive improvisations of the band! Their original style does not fit any of the genre specifications. Their compositions stir the imagination and open hard to reach areas before the fans. Freedom, which is essential for them, becomes a source of inspiration for their creative spirit.

The authentic sound of BABA ZULA has been cultivated from the music of the late 1960s and 70s. The band was set up in Istanbul in 1996 by Levent Akman, Murat Ertel and Emre Onel, who left in 2005 and was replaced by Kosar Kamci. In 2003 singer Oya Erkaya joined, and a year later the unique master of ‘live drawings” Seren Oykut. Her presence on stage, and the creation of images with the swiftness and inspiration demonstrated by her are an important visual part of the entity that BABA ZULA represent. Their artistic improvisations are serious works with an original style, sound and character. They use the emblematic in Turkish music wooden spoons and saz (the only traditional Turkish instrument with an electric version) and rely on the centuries’ old cultural traditions of their country. The combination of Oriental instruments (such as darbuka, electric saz, spoons, “ney” from the Suffi tradition”, clarinet as detail of Turkish gypsy music) and the modern electronic sound creates the peculiar specific sound of BABA ZULA that they define as “Oriental oak”.

BABA ZULA’s performances throughout Europe resemble mystic rituals – a mixture of visual art, oriental dance, opulent costumes, poetry, theatre and live animation that offer the audience true audio-visual delight. The famous Turkish actress Sera Yilmiz, who has starred in several Ferzan Oztepek movies will join BABA ZULA in Sofia as their special guest.

As infers the title “Roots” of their latest album (2007), the connection with past and tradition is an occasion and a reason, a source of inspiration and a drive for action, a provocation and a consequence to everything they have created. The music becomes a performance, the visual improvisation completes the auditory sensations and the result is a unique party with BABA ZULA!

This is exactly what the fans of music, cinema and Sofia International Film Festival will experience on March 15, 2009 at Number One Hall of the National Palace of Culture in Sofia prior to the screening of Wim Wenders’ film “Palermo Shooting”, and later the same evening at 4th km Party Centre. Together we shall mark the close of the 13th edition of the Festival and will enjoy an amazing live performance of the Turkish music phenomenon BABA ZULA!

The world premiere of the latest feature film by Bulgarian director Georgi Djulgerov will open the 13th edition of Sofia International Film Festival at 7.30 p.m. March 5 at Number One Hall of the National Palace of Culture. The Goat was based on the novella under the same title by the late Bulgarian writer Yordan Radichkov. The screenplay is to the credit of Georgi Djulgerov and the young writer Kristin Dimitrova, who made her debut in cinema. The leading actors are Ivan Burnev (who starred in Djulgerov’s Lady Zee) and the American Angela Rodel. Radoslav Spassov is director of photography. The film was produced by BR film supported by the National Film Centre, the Bulgarian National Television and Nu Boyana Film.

In this story animals have been bestowed with wisdom, insight and kindness. The he-goat from the title is the narrator and the protagonist of the story at the same time. He comes down from Heaven with a mission – to prevent the locals from digging out a treasure buried near an ancient Thracian shrine. A man and a woman coming from different national backgrounds launch a hunt for the treasure, which turns into a tragic and comic duel of cultural prejudices only to realize in the end that what they feel for each other is their greatest treasure. Or as the writer put it, “Man is but one long sentence, written with great love and inspiration, but wrought with spelling mistakes”.

The film’s protagonists are a Bulgarian man and an American woman enchanted with Bulgarian folklore. Emphasis is laid on the clash between the prejudices of the Eastern European, who has lived sealed in his world until not that long ago, and the representative of a nation that pretends to be a cosmopolitan one.

In the film Angela Rodel plays almost a version of herself. She is a musician and ethnomusicologist by profession. She has been living in Bulgaria since 2005. As a student at Yale University she joined the Yale Slavic Choir, where she heard for the first time the “Mystery of Bulgarian Voices” choir and fell in love with Bulgarian folk music. Having listened to all the recordings that were available to her at the time, Angela finally landed in Bulgaria in 1995 to attend the nation-wide folklore fair in Koprivshtitsa. She stayed and studied Bulgarian Studies at Sofia University for a year and dedicated herself to Bulgarian folk songs. The Goat is her first attempt at film acting. “The chance of working with Georgi Djulgerov and the film crew gave me an amazing introduction to Bulgarian cinema that I shall remember for ever,” Angela says.

There are two more very important ‘actors’ in this feature: the he-goat Bozo, a docile and castrated animal, and Charlie, Bozo’s boisterous ‘stunt’ for the ‘action’ scenes. The animals were trained and belong to the rare breed of Black Kalofer Goat. Featuring in this film are the Bulgarian actors Ivan Savov, Krassimir Dokov, Lyubov Lyubcheva and the company of the Theatre of Drama and Music in the town of Kurdzhali, Southeastern Bulgaria.

The film crew chose several locations: the Stone Wedding natural phenomenon, Perperikon, the village of Tatoul near Kurdzhali and the port of Burgas on the Black Sea, where one of the goats starred in an action scene. He was hanging in the air on a platform and controlling the situation from high above. The audience who will come to the closing of the On the Coast Sofia Film Festival in Bourgas will be able to judge the goat’s performance.

Djulgerov has long dreamt of making a film after Radichkov’s novella The Goat. The work of the great Bulgarian writer dedicated to love has attracted the film director much in the way his love of cinema has done.

Hungarian director Janos Szasz accepted the invitation to preside on the international jury that will decide on the winner of the Grand Prix for best feature at the 13th edition of Sofia International Film Festival, as well as the JAMESON Bulgarian Short Film Award. Sitting also on the panel will be Israeli producer and director Doron Eran, Bulgarian actor Momchil Karamitev, residing and working in the United States and Italy, renowned Bulgarian journalist Elena Yoncheva and Serbian director Stefan Arsenijevic (winner of the Best Director Award at the 12th edition of Sofia International Film Festival, 2008).

He will receive the Sofia Award for his merits to television and filmmaking.

Actor and screenplay writer Michael Palin enjoys popularity in Bulgaria as one of the legendary members of the Monty Python group. Today however he is famous not only for his roles in film, but also as one of the best-loved TV hosts in the world.

Born Michael Edward Palin on May 5, 1943 in Sheffield, UK, he made his stage debut at the age of 5 in the part of Martha Cratchit from Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”. He made the audience laugh by falling off the stage. The young Michael had no wish of becoming an actor – he read history at Oxford and made plans for a job in advertising. His acting performances and writing began by accident, when he was noticed by his fellow student Terry Jones and this marked the beginning of a legendary partnership. He went to London as a history graduate, but looked for a job as a screenplay writer – the year was 1965. His first job in TV was as a host of a teenage pop music show - „Now!”. The parody “The Frost Report” was the first project that brought Michael Palin and Terry Jones together with the other four authors of Monty Python – Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam.

The single-minded comic thinking of the members of the group could only be compared to the same phenomenon in music produced by The Beatles. On October 5, 1969, the BBC aired for the first time “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”, and the rest is history. By 1974 the six men had left a huge legacy of tours with live performances, recordings, albums, books and thousands of fans.

At the end of the 1980s Michael Palin made a new step in his career and quickly became one of the best-loved TV hosts of geographical features. Traveling is his great passion and he turned into a wonderful travel companion to the TV audience, funny and interesting in every tiny detail and in any circumstance.

Michael Palin’s first documentary travelogue for the BBC was “Great Railway Journeys of the World” (1980). He was made CBE (2000) for his merits to his country, and since 2002 the 5-million pound high-speed train Super Voyager in middle England has been named after Michael Palin.

But true success came with “Around the World in 80 Days”. The six-hour documentary recreated the made-up journey of Jules Verne’s character Phileas Fogg. Michael Palin followed his itinerary using only the means of transportation that Fogg had at his disposal at the time. Followed by a 5-member BBC crew, the English comedian traveled on trains, balloons, a dogs’ sledge and a barge across Paris, Venice, the Suez, Dubai, Mumbai, Madras, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo and the United States. His goal was starting from London to return exactly in 80 days’ time after having toured the globe. In 1989, when it was first broadcast, the TV series with Michael Palin’s adventures and comments of the world and its people in close-up scored a record high rating for a documentary film. In the next few years it was aired in more than 50 countries and released on videos and DVDs more than once.

After the huge success of “Around the World in 80 Days” Michael Palin worked on several other BBC projects, “Pole to Pole” (1992), "Full Circle" (1997), "Sahara" (2002), and "Himalaya" (2004). The four installments of “Michael Palin’s Hemingway Adventure” (1999) occupied a particular place in his travels.

“New Europe” (2007) is Michael Palin’s latest travel series, but this time it focuses on the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. In it the untiring Brit explores 20 countries that were long separated from his world by the Iron Curtain.

Within the framework of last year’s edition of Sofia International Film Festival the screening of his documentary film “Eastern Delight” took place with shots from Bulgaria, as well. The film is part of Michael Palin’s documentary series for the BBC. “Eastern Delight” gathered Michael Palin’s impressions and experiences in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian events and personalities that produced a great impression on him and were included in his work were the celebrations of the white brotherhood on Mount Rila, the horse races at Stolipinovo, Perperikon, the amphitheatre in the old town of Plovdiv and an interview with pop folk star Azis. However the focus of his Bulgarian travels was the brewing of the brandy by the family of Stefan Kitanov also known as Dyado Toto’s brandy, a ritual that the English comedian and TV host made partial with BBC spectators.

As special guest to the 13th edition of Sofia International Film Festival Michael Palin will present a panorama of selected excerpts from his best-loved films: “Life of Brian”, “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”, “Around the World in 80 Days”, “Sahara”, “Himalaya”, “Pole to Pole” and “Michael Palin’s New Europe”.

will be presented within the framework of the 13th edition of Sofia International Film Festival

The 13th edition of Sofia International Film Festival together with the US Embassy in Bulgaria will offer a complete retrospective of the icon of American independent film Jim Jarmusch. The screenings will start on February 28 at the Home of Cinema in Sofia.

The least Hollywood-abiding of all filmmakers, director and screenplay writer Jim Jarmusch was born in the small town of Akron, Ohio on January 22, 1953 in a family of Hungarian emigres; he was only 17 when he arrived in New York with his parents. But it was exactly this cosmopolitan city that turned out the best place for him and the beginning of his long lasting affair with filmmaking – as he enrolled in the New York Film Academy.

In 1980 Jim Jarmusch shot on 16 mm film his debut film Permanent Vacation, whose budget was only USD 15, 000. But its premiere took place in 1982. Initially conceived as a short film, his second full-length feature, Stranger than Paradise (1984), turned out a huge success. It was based on the legendary rock hit "I Put A Spell On You" and won the Golden Camera prize for a film debut at the Cannes Film Festival and the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival.

The idea for the Coffee and Cigarettes project came up in 1986, a work to which Jarmusch added new segments right up to 2003, when the comic situations around the possessive addiction to caffeine and nicotine managed to construct a complete movie – a particular observation of manias, the joy and addictions of human life.

One of his best known works Dead Man, 1995 starring Johnny Depp became emblematic for his filmmaking across the world. The first spectators were the guests at the Cannes Film Festival, where the film enjoyed a huge success. In 1996 it was prized by the European Film Academy and the New York Film Critics Award. The film marks also the first joint work with the rock icon Neil Young, who wrote the original soundtrack.

Following the success of Dead Man Jim Jarmusch’s popularity in Europe exceed that in his native America. In 1997 he released Year of the Horse – a documentary film portrait of Nick Young’s concert tour and the Crazy Horses rock band. The film included interviews with the band presenting its history, as well as backstage episodes from the 1970s and 1980s.

Two years later he made Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai starring Forest Whitaker, which film became a favourite with the Bulgarian intellectual audiences, as well. In it Jarmusch voluntarily renounced the Hollywood clichés – the camera followed easily the protagonist’s journey; action was replaced by peace. Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai impressed with the depth of the insights about the loneliness of the human being and the power of spirit. The film was evidence of the original and avant-garde ideas of its author, which with the help of cinematic language managed to get across to the audience and made it think.

Broken Flowers (2005) is his latest film to date that has been screened in Bulgaria. It won the Prize of the Jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006. True to his nature, Jim Jarmusch wrote, directed and produced it.

Taking off as a director of underground movies, Jim Jarmusch gradually found his true vocation as one of the best independent filmmakers. The mystique and surrealism are inseparable from his films. The original soundtrack and his style based on improvisation are particularly powerful.

Do not miss the 10 outstanding films by Jim Jarmusch presented only within the framework of the 13th edition of Sofia International Film Festival (March 5-15, 2009).

On March 15 at Number 1 Hall of the National Palace of Culture
in Sofia the legendary director will present in person
his latest feature film “Palermo Shooting”

Sofia has become a favourite destination with world famous director Wim Wenders. His latest feature film “Palermo
Shooting” that will take on the Bulgarian cinema halls will be presented for the first time at a special gala screening for the closing of the official programme of Sofia International Film Festival on March 15.

Wim Wenders is a unique film director who has won a particular place within the realm of world cinema – and hardly are there connoisseurs of his work who would dare question the statement. His filmography includes an impressive number of undeniable classical films such as “Paris, Texas”, “Wings of Desire”, “The State of Things” and “Buena Vista Social Club”, which carry the spirit of modern masterpieces and offer contemporary spectators exquisite visual experiences not only from the 20th, but also from the 21st century. It looks as if with the years films have become a particular responsibility with the cosmopolitan artist alongside social comment. Even his latest works such as “Land of Plenty” and “Don’t Come Knocking”, showcased at previous editions of Sofia International Film Festival, are no exception to the Wenders brand in filmmaking. One movie that charges the audience with the same vibrant energy is the artist’s latest provocation entitled “Palermo Shooting”.

Trapped in the hectic life that engulfs him all the more, Finn (Campino) decides to turn his back on past habits and take in a new direction. An unplanned trip takes him from Dusseldorf to Palermo, where he finally comes face-to-face with a mysterious stalker (Dennis Hopper). What is the secret that both rivals are after – this is not the only question Finn has to answer; at the same time a charming young lady comes in (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), who will not only conquer his heart, but will for ever change his life...

Together with the new elements Wenders has given credit to what is already known about his work. The three main preoccupations – love, life and death are philosophically entangled in “Palermo Shooting”. The camera follows closely all details and all the nuances of the shifting moods in the film. Wenders has selected professionally the soundtrack, as well: 27 tracks featuring legendary artists such as Nick Cave, Portishead, Velvet Underground and Lou Reed in a compelling compilation.

“Palermo Shooting” brings once again Wenders’ audience to the best in his philosophical road movies. But this time they are involved in a different kind of journey – inwards to the essence of Man.

“Palermo Shooting” is a particularly communicative film directed entirely at the audience. And yet this is Wenders’ most personal one in his entire career, dedicated to two great filmmakers who passed away in 2007 – Michelangelo Antonioni and Ingmar Bergman.


“Palermo Shooting” was in the official competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008.

The 12 Bulgarian short films that will run in competition for one of the most coveted prizes in film, the JAMESON Short Film Award, have already been selected. Only one of them, though, will get EUR 6, 000 and an auteur statuette provided by Jameson Irish Whiskey. The International Jury of the 13th Sofia International Film Festival (that takes place March 5-15) will decide who the winner will be. The best short film competition is in its 7th edition in joint partnership of Jameson Irish Whiskey and Sofia International Film Festival and stirs growing interest among Bulgarian filmmakers. This year the selection committee was faced with a very difficult choice: they had to shortlist their favourite entries from a total of 96 short films, of which 57 feature, 19 documentary, 13 animation and 7 experimental films.

The selection process was chaired by Alexander Yanakiev aided by Iglika Trifonova (film director), Yurii Dachev (playwright and screenplay writer), Yanko Terziev (film critic) and Petar Vulchanov (director and winner of the 2008 JAMESON Short Film Award). Here are the 12 finalists:

1. “The War”
feature, 2008, 5.32 min.
Directed by Stefan Komandarev
Written by Deyan Enev, Stefan Komandarev
Cinematography by Krassimir Andonov

2. “Anything for You”
feature, 2008, 19.45 min.
Directed by Toma Vasharov
Written by Toma Vasharov, Radoslav Parushev
Cinematography by Anton Bakarski

3. “Goleshevo”
documentary, 2008, 30 min.
Directed by Iliyan Metev
Cinematography by Iliyan Metev

4. “The Mouth of the Hairdryer”
feature, 2008, 4.35 min.
Author Hristina Ivanova
Written by Hristina Ivanova
Cinematography by Dian Zagorchinov

5. “Gap”
feature, 2008, 3.40 min.
Directed by Kristina Grozeva
Written by Kristina Grozeva
Cinematography by Vassilena Goranova

6. “The Line”
animation, 2009, 3.50 min.
Author Andrey Kulev
Written by Rumen Barossov

7. “The Fly”
animation, 2008, 8.50 min.
Author Gospodin Nedelchev, a.k.a. Dido
Animation Gospodin Nedelchev and Dimiter Dimitrov
Written by Pravda Dalekova
Cinematography by Iliya Danchev

8. “Omelette”
feature, 2008, 7.00 min.
Author Nadejda Koseva
Directed by Nadejda Koseva
Written by Nadejda Koseva and Georgi Gospodinov
Cinematography by Anton Bakarski

9. “Three Sisters & Andrey”
animation, 2008, 19 min.
Authors Boris Despodov, Andrey Paounov
Written by Andrey Paounov
Cinematography by Nikolay Lazarov

10. “The Egg”
documentary, 2008, 4.24 min.
Directed by Ekaterina Deneva
Cinematography by Petko Lungov

11. “Ladies and Gentlemеn”
feature, 2008, 4.12 min.
Author and Actor Kamen Donev
Cinematography by Boris Misirkov and Georgi Bogdanov

12. “The Zombie’s Survival Guide”
animation, 2009, 2.30 min.
Author Krum Petrov
Directed by Vanya Yancheva

The 13th edition of Sofia International Film Festival will open with a screening of the latest feature film of Bulgarian director Georgi Djulgerov “The Goat” at 7.30 p.m. at Number One Hall of the National Palace of Culture.

“The Goat” is based on the novella of the same name by the late Bulgarian writer Yordan Radichkov. In this story animals have been bestowed with wisdom, insight and kindness. The he-goat from the title is the narrator and the protagonist of the story at the same time. He comes down from Heaven with a mission – to prevent the locals from digging out a treasure buried near an ancient Thracian shrine. A man and a woman coming from different national backgrounds launch a hunt for the treasure, which turns into a tragic and comic duel of cultural prejudices only to realize in the end that what they feel for each other is their greatest treasure. Or as the writer put it, “Man is but one long sentence, written with great love and inspiration, but wrought with spelling mistakes”. We shall give additional information about the Bulgarian films at Sofia International Film Festival.

The long awaited film of director Gus Van Sant, “Milk”, starring Sean Penn will be screened at the exclusive Tolerance Gala.

The provocative plot is based on the real life story of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay municipal councilor in California in the 1970s elected officially on the post, who had not only come out, and campaigner for rights of gays and lesbians. “Milk” was nominated for 8 Academy Awards: best picture, actor in a leading role (Sean Penn), actor in a supporting role (Josh Brolin), directing (Gus Van Sant), writing (original screenplay) (Dustin Lance Black), film editing (Elliot Graham), costume design (Danny Glicker) and music (score) (Danny Elfman) – additional information about the gala event will be disseminated separately.

French scriptwriter, director, cinematographer, photographer, film editor, composer and writer Siegfried will be coming again to Sofia International Film Festival.

He will present five of his films to the Bulgarian audience – beginning with his feature film debut “Louise: Take 2” (1998), and the adventurous “Sansa” (2003), the animated film “Ada”, and the film experiments Kinogamma Part One: East (2008) and Kinogamma Part Two: Far East (2008). Siegfried is a French director and musician born in 1973. He is the composer of the original score of several European and Russian films, including the International Competition entry “Baksy”. His first short film “La Faim” (1996) was featured at Cannes International Film Festival, while “Sansa” snatched the Young Jury Prize of the Flanders Film Festival and took part in the Competition of the 2004 Sofia International Film Festival. The gifted French filmmaker will give a concert and will present his own exhibition of auteur photographs in partnership with the French Cultural Institute in Sofia and Sofia International Film Festival.

The JAMESON AWARD for best Bulgarian short film will have its seventh edition. The prize includes a statuette and EUR 6 000.

It is a joint initiative by Sofia International Film Festival and Jameson Irish Whiskey.

Here are the members of the panel that will shortlist the 12 short films that will compete in this category: Alexander Yanakiev, chairman, and Iglika Trifonova – director, Yuri Dachev – playwright, Yanko Terziev (film critic, Capital Light) and Petar Vulchanov – director and winner of the JAMESON 2008 Award.

The winner itself will be declared by the International jury (we shall give you details on that in our special press release and at the special screening of the 12 finalists that will take place on February 4 at the House of Cinema in Sofia).

For a 13th year Sofia International Film Festival will gather together in Sofia films, guests, stars, journalists and lovers of good filmmaking. Featured in Variety’s Top 50 unmissable film festivals, the largest in scale cinematographic event that represents Bulgaria proudly to the world will declare itself as one of the important festivals in South Eastern Europe and will take place March 5 - 15. What started as a thematic music film festival, went successfully through 12 previous editions to become the cinema marathon of the year in Bulgaria with its own serious claims for the most demanding audience, because it brings the current world cinema trends to the domestic viewers and the latest in Bulgarian and regional cinema to the world.

The festival is organized by Art Fest under the auspices of the Municipality of Sofia and in partnership with the Bulgarian Culture Ministry, the National Film Centre, the National Palace of Culture and the Bulgarian National Television with the support of the programmes MEDIA and MEDIA International of the European Commission, national and foreign cultural institutes and sponsors. The general sponsor of the festival is Jameson Irish Whiskey.

The 13th edition of Sofia International Film Festival will take place March 5-15 2009 in Sofia with an additional programme running March 16-22 in Sofia, Plovdiv and Burgas.
The festival bill includes 90 feature, 38 documentary and 60 short films. They will be screened in one of the following categories that have become traditional for this festival:

International Competition (Grand Prix for first or second feature film)
Special Premieres
European Screen with a focus on British cinema
New Bulgarian Feature Films (KODAK Award)
Bulgarian Short Films (JAMESON Short Film Award)
Balkan Film Competition (No Man’s Land Award)
Sofia CineLinks Sarajevo presents films from Russia and Turkey
World Screen
Retrospectives of directors Jim Jarmusch and Siefgried
Documentary Films

The world premiere of the latest feature film by Bulgarian director Georgi Djulgerov will open the 13th edition of Sofia International Film Festival at 7.30 p.m. March 5 at Number One Hall of the National Palace of Culture. The Goat was based on the novella under the same title by the late Bulgarian writer Yordan Radichkov. In this story animals have been bestowed with wisdom, insight and kindness. The he-goat from the title is the narrator and the protagonist of the story at the same time. He comes down from Heaven with a mission – to prevent the locals from digging out a treasure buried near an ancient Thracian shrine. A man and a woman coming from different national backgrounds launch a hunt for the treasure, which turns into a tragic and comic duel of cultural prejudices only to realize in the end that what they feel for each other is their greatest treasure. One of the leading actors in the film is Ivan Burnev.

For the seventh time the festival will award the Grand Prix for best feature film in the International Competition (for First or Second Feature Film of directors from all over the world). These are the entries in the official competition of the 13th edition of Sofia International Film Festival:

Bahrtalo! (Good Luck!) – Hungary, directed by Robert Lakatos
Possible Lives – Argentina, directed by Sandra Gugliotta
Zift – Bulgaria, directed by Javor Gardev
Autumn – Turkey, directed by Özcan Alper
Cumbia Calera – Mexico, directed by René Villareal
Baksy – Russia-Kazakhstan-France-Germany, directed by Gulshat Omarova
For My Fatrer – Israel - Germany, directed by Dror Zahavi
The Firm Land – France-India-Iran, directed by Chapour Haghighat
The Happiest Girl in the World – Romania, directed by Radu Jude
Awaking from a Dream – Spain, directed by Freddy Mas Franqueza
Franklyn – The United Kingdom, directed by Gerald McMorrow
Chiko – Germany, directed by Özgür Yildirim

For the first time two of the competition entries – Zift and Baksy – have been projects presented previously within the Sofia Meetings programme.

An international jury will confer the main prizes of the 13th International Sofia Film Festival. The president of the jury is Hungarian director Janos Szasz. Sitting also on the panel will be Israeli producer and director Doron Eran, Bulgarian actor Momchil Karamitev, residing and working in the United States and Italy, renowned Bulgarian journalist Elena Yoncheva and Serbian director Stefan Arsenijevic (winner of the Best Director Award at the 12th edition of Sofia International Film Festival, 2008).

The Festival will confer also the traditional awards – the Jury’s Special Prize, the FIPRESCI AWARD, the Audience Award of Sofia Municipality, the NO MAN’S LAND Award for best Balkan feature provided by Damyanitza winery, and the KODAK Award for Best Bulgarian Feature Film.

The JAMESON AWARD for best Bulgarian short film will have its seventh edition. The prize includes a statuette and EUR 6 000. It is a joint initiative by Sofia International Film Festival and Jameson Irish Whiskey. Here are the members of the panel that shortlisted the 12 short films that will compete in this category: Alexander Yanakiev, chairman, and Iglika Trifonova – director, Yuri Dachev – playwright, Yanko Terziev (film critic, Capital Light) and Petar Vulchanov – director and winner of the JAMESON 2008 Award. The winner itself will be declared by the International jury.

The Sofia Award of the Municipality of Sofia for life-time achievement in film will go to director Nikola Korabov – a filmmaker who has created unforgettable Bulgarian feature films such as “Tobacco”, “Ivan Kondarev”, “Destiny”, “Longing for the Wide, Wide World”, “Belief in the White Wind”. Nikola Korabov celebrated his 80th anniversary! The honorary plaque is made by sculptor Georgi Chapkunov.

The incredible actor, comedian, scriptwriter and famous TV host and traveller Michael Palin will be special guest to the 13th edition of Sofia International Film Festival. He will be awarded the Prize of Sofia by the Municipality of Sofia for Outstanding Achievement in cinema and television. Michael Palin’s visit is organized in cooperation with the British Council, a traditional partner of Sofia International Film Festival and is part of the special focus on British cinema of this year’s festival.

To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the British Council the UK Cultural institution will present a strong and versatile film bill at Sofia International Film Festival. The film that won 8 Oscars, 4 Golden Globes and 7 BAFTAs, Slumdog Millionaire of director Danny Boyle, will have a special gala screening at 7.30 p.m. at Number One Hall of the National Palace of Culture on March 10. The film will be presented by popular Bulgarian TV host of the Bulgarian version of the “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?” quiz Niki Kunchev. One of the most eagerly awaited films is In Bruges for which actor Colin Farrell won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in Comedy/Musical for his portrayal of a hitman. Director Gerald McMorrow will offer the Bulgarian audience his ambitious and impressive film debut Franklyn, which will run in the Festival’s international competition. Experienced director Shane Meadows, whom the Bulgarian cinema lovers know from his films 24/7 and This Is England, will present his latest urban and low-budget film wrought with dark humour – Somers Town. Among the highlights of the British films special attention deserves the screen adaptation of John Boyne’s best-selling novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, a very powerful ‘translation of the novel’ onto the silver screen made by director Mark Herman, as well as the screening of Peter Neal’s Room Full Of Mirrors based on the documentary tale of the life and music of one of the icons of the 1960s, Jimi Hendrix. The British Council presents also documentary and short films from the United Kingdom at the 13th edition of Sofia International Film Festival.

Sofia has become a favorite destination with world famous director Wim Wenders. His latest feature film Palermo Shooting that will take on the Bulgarian cinema halls on March 20th will be presented for the first time at a special gala screening for the closing of the official programme of Sofia International Film Festival on March 15.

Svetoslav Ovtcharov’s film A Farewell to Hemingway will be presented at a special gala screening. The film has two awards at the “Golden Rose Film Festival” in Varna – special award of the jury and the award for directing. Young American actor Chris Heuisler played the role of young Hemingway and is expected as a guest of the 13th Sofia International Film Festival. In this movie young Hemingway is a war-correspondent on his way in “Orient Express” from Istanbul to Paris and he stops at one of the train-stations in Bulgarian province. There he meets the station master and his emancipated, educated rebellion daughter. These two are taking care of the young traveler and the “magical” cures bring back the nightmares from the war trenches and the pain from one lost unrequited love.

The long awaited film of director Gus Van Sant, Milk, starring Sean Penn will be screened at the exclusive Tolerance Gala. The provocative plot is based on the real life story of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay municipal councilor in California in the 1970s elected officially on the post, who had not only come out, and campaigner for rights of gays and lesbians. Milk was nominated for 8 Academy Awards: best picture, actor in a leading role (Sean Penn), actor in a supporting role (Josh Brolin), directing (Gus Van Sant), writing (original screenplay) (Dustin Lance Black), film editing (Elliot Graham), costume design (Danny Glicker) and music (score) (Danny Elfman). Two of these nominations transformed into awards already – Sean Penn got an “Oscar” for his performance, and Dustin Lance Black also won the American Academy Award for best original screenplay. Additional information about the gala event will be disseminated separately.

A week prior to the start of the 13th Sofia International Film Festival together with the US Embassy in Bulgaria the audience will be able to watch a unique retrospective of all the films of iconic American independent filmmaker Jim Jarmusch. The screenings will take off on February 28 at the House of Cinema in Sofia. Jim Stark, producer of Jarmusch’s films, will attend as special guest.

A few foreign feature films with Bulgarian participation will be presented within Sofia International Film Festival’s framework, including the Austrian “The Daughter” featuring actresses Sofia Kuzeva and Meglena Karalambova, and the Indian Colours of Passion shot by the Bulgarian directors of photography Rali Ralchev and Hristo Bakalov.

The film Delta by Hungarian director Kornel Mundruczo that took part in the main competition of the 2008 Cannes Film Festival will have a special screening within the Sofia Meetings framework, where the project was first presented in the world.

The best in new Russian filmmaking comes to the 13th edition of Sofia International Film Festival. The bill includes titles such as Paper Soldier of Alexei German Jr., which was already singled out for best cinematography and received the Silver Lion for Best Director at the 2008 Venice Film Festival, Captive by Alexei Uchitel (co-production with Bulgaria – “Camera”), Mukha by Vladimir Kott, the feature debut film of Sergei Dvortsevoy Tulpan that has already won several international film distinctions and Karen Shakhnazarov’s Vanished Empire. A specil guest of this year’s festival will be the star of the new Russian cinema, actress Chulpan Khamatova, who starred in “Moon Father”, “Tuvalu”, “Garpastum” and “Good Bye Lenin!”.

French scriptwriter, director, cinematographer, photographer, film editor, composer and writer Siegfried will be coming again to Sofia International Film Festival. He will present five of his films to the Bulgarian audience – beginning with his feature film debut “Louise: Take 2” (1998), and the adventurous “Sansa” (2003), the animated film “Ada”, and the film experiments Kinogamma Part One: East (2008) and Kinogamma Part Two: Far East (2008). Siegfried is a French director and musician born in 1973. He is the composer of the original score of several European and Russian films, including the International Competition entry “Baksy”. The gifted French filmmaker will give a concert and will present his own exhibition of auteur photographs in partnership with the French Cultural Institute in Sofia and Sofia International Film Festival.

Traditionally Balkan cinema occupies a prominent place in the programme of Sofia International Film Festival, where the leading titles from the region are presented. Aida Begic’s Snow (winner of the Critics Week Grand Prize at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival) is for the admirers of quality Balkan cinema. The film offers an alternative view at post-war Bosnia – only 2 years after the end of the war conflict that divided Yugoslavia 6 women, 1 elderly man, 4 girls and a young boy are trying to survive in Slavno, Eastern Bosnia. They all gather the remains of their lives in an attempt to begin a new and more meaningful life. But things are likely to change, when two businessmen come with an offer to purchase the village in order to build a resort and hotels. The producer of the film Elma Tatarjic will present the film Snow in person to the Bulgarian audience. Among the highlights of the Balkan films at Sofia International Film Festival are the latest film of Slovenian Damjan Kozole Forever, the Croatian film No One’s Son by Arsen Ostojic, Goran Markovic’s The Tour, Uros Stojanovic’s Tears for Sale. The star of the Turkish film My Marlon and Brando Ayca Damgaci (winner of the Heart of Sarajevo for best actress) and its director Huseyin Karabey will come for the Sofia screening of their film. Ayca’s heroine is a Turkish actress residing in Istanbul. While shooting a film she meets on location the Kurdish actor Hama Ali and falls in love with him, but when the filming is over, Hama has to go back to Northern Iraq. Despite the distance the two try to save their love, but the military situation in Iraq places obstacles on their way. Led by her love Ayca decides to leave for Iraq without considering seriously the danger of the war.

This year Sofia International Film Festival will present a selection of several outstanding films united by the motto “Turkey in Focus”. These include Three Monkeys of director Nuri Bilge Ceylan. The three monkeys from the title are no other than a husband and a wife and their son, to whom life offers sudden twists of fortune. Like the famous three monkeys of wisdom, the members of this family ‘hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” going deeper into spiritual poverty and estrangement. Other titles include Yesim Ustaoglu’s “Pandora’s Box”, a film about discovering a new meaning in life, and “Point” by Dervis Zaim and “Milk” by Semih Kaplanoglu.

The Russian and Turkish programmes are part of the joint initiative of the festivals in Sofia and Sarajevo entitled “Sofia CineLinks Sarajevo” and supported by the new programme MEDIA International. The programme of the European Commission aims at partnership between events and professionals from EU member states and MEDIA and non-EU member states. In Sofia the programme supports the promotion of films and guests from non-EU countries. Alongside the Russian and Turkish films, the bill includes also works from Argentina, Mexico, India and Iran. “Sofia CineLinks Sarajevo” will have its place at Sofia Meetings, where a few film projects of countries close to Bulgaria and still not members of the European Union will be presented.

13th Sofia International Film Festival will present more than 20 films in its Documentary program. The selection of Documentary Films for the has been entrusted to two gifted Bulgarian documentary filmmakers, Andrey Paounov (Georgi and the Butterflies, The Mosquito Problem and Other Stories) and Boris Despodov (Corridor No. 8). For the first time the festival will run a documentary competition with 10 entries selected by Paounov and Despodov. The jury that will confer the prize for a documentary film will be led by famous director and producer Adela Peeva. The documentary competition is held with the support of the Bulgarian National television.

Some of the Bulgarian documentary entries are “41° According to Azaryan” by Lilia Abadjieva, “Cuba Is Music” by Iliyan Dzhevelekov, “Bridge over the Wall”, a music and documentary look at the music of Nikolay Ivanov and the OM band, made by Konstantin Zankov, “Sevt the Immortal” by Zlatina Russeva, “Djazzta-Prasta” by Andrey Slabakov, Atanas Kiryakov’s film “Ivan Kirkov or to Survive in a Memory”, Malina Petrova’s trilogy “Void by Prescription”.The documentary Bulgaria-Austria co-production by director Kostadin Bonev, Europolis, will be the Bulgarian documentary gala at the 13th edition of Sofia International Film Festival.

The author readings of the 12 favorite novels of the Bulgarians part of the campaign of the Bulgarian National Television, “The Big Read”, will also be screened at Sofia International Film Festival. Famous Bulgarian directors will present their own idea of “The Lord of the Rings”, “Time of Parting”, “Doomed Souls”, “Under the Yoke”, “Tobacco”, “The Iron Oil Lamp”, “East of Eden”, “A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” , “The Master and Margarita”, “100 Years of Solitude”, “Count Monte Christo” and “The Little Prince”. The 30-minute essays dedicated to the “Big Read” campaign have been produced by the Bulgarian National Television and will be presented at Cinema House starting February 28, 2009.

More than 200 foreign guests are expected to arrive at the 13th edition of Sofia International Film Festival. Some of them will come for the sixth edition of the Sofia Meetings programme that will gather the elite of the European filmmaking industry. The projects for second feature films will be presented in public to fund managers, producers, distributors, institution representatives and journalists. The Bulgarian and Balkan films will be screened before an audience of festival directors and people in charge of film selection. A round table discussion will be organized in the frames of Sofia Meetings in cooperation with Sunny Side of the Doc and Central European Initiative – the main themes will be about film distribution in the region of Central and Eastern Europe and about the variable alternative methods of reaching the cinema audience. Sunny Side of the Doc is one of the leading markets for documentary films. The Military Club in Sofia will host once more the Sofia Meetings programme. The project is run jointly by the National Film Centre and is supported by the programmes MEDIA and MEDIA International of the European Commission, Nu Boyana Film and the Municipality of Sofia.

BABA ZULA will play the final note of the 13th edition of Sofia International Film Festival on March 15, 2009. The virtuoso performers first came to Bulgaria in 2005 to present live the soundtrack to Fatih Akin’s documentary masterpiece “Crossing the Bridge: the Sound of Istanbul”. Luckily for their fans in Bulgaria, the 2008 edition of Sofia International Film Festival closed with a BABA ZULA concert. Those who have heard them have instantly fallen in love with the unconventional and particularly impressive improvisations of the band! Their music becomes a special performance, the visual improvisation completes the auditory sensations and the result is a unique party with BABA ZULA! This is exactly what the fans of music, cinema and Sofia International Film Festival will experience on March 15, 2009 at Number One Hall of the National Palace of Culture in Sofia prior to the screening of Wim Wenders’ film “Palermo Shooting”, and later the same evening at 4th km Party Centre – with all the fans of music, cinema and Sofia Film Festival and later the same evening at Party Centre 4th Kilometre with the lovers of music, cinema and Sofia International Film Festival.