Bulgarian movie aficionados are eager to see Sofia Film Fest – one of the significant large-scale movie forums across Central and Eastern Europe. The official part of the fest will be in the period March 6 – 16 and will include about 160 feature movies and documentaries, as well as over 70 short films.

The Court of director Stefan Komandarev will open the fest at Hall No 1 of the National Palace of Culture with its exclusive screening. The previous project of the director -The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner marked a great international success. It has been so far the only Bulgarian movie that entered the list of the nine Oscar applications in the foreign movie category back in 2010. The Court is a co-production of Bulgaria, Germany, Croatia and Macedonia. Milena Jelinek with her 25 years of experience with the Screenwriting Faculty of the Columbia University and Oscar winner for short movie script Tom Abrams consulted the script. Prominent Bulgarian actors, such as Assen Blatechki, Ovanes Torosyan, Paraskeva Djukelova, as well as Serbian star Predrag “Miki” Manojlovic play the main characters. Manojlovic also starred in The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner and now he is invited for the Sofia screening.

Great Czech director Jiří Menzel, who received an Oscar for his Closely Watched Trains will be an exclusive guest of the Sofia Film Fest this year. He will present within the frameworks of the forum his latest work – The Don Juans and will receive the doctor honoris causa distinction of the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts /NATFA/. Back in 2007 the director received the Sofia award for his overall contribution to the history of cinema, while one of this year’s laureates will be Serbian filmmaker Goran Paskaljevic. The latter will present here his latest work – Kad svane dan /At Dawn/.

The Grand Budapest Hotel of director Wes Anderson and with the participation of Ralph Fiennes, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton and other stars is among the most eagerly awaited Sofia Film Fest titles. In Sofia it will be shown right after its world premiere at Berlinale 2014. Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty is also on the agenda, with its 4 European film awards, a Golden Globe and a chance for an Oscar. The screening of the scandalous new Nymphomaniac project of the provocative Lans von Trier will be one of the special events at the fest. French actress Charlotte Gainsbourg plays the main part, while the Danish director and screenwriter will be presented by a summary of nearly all his movies. This retrospective will be part of the SFF’s warm up program, which will start a week before its opening night for a third year in a row.

Twelve titles will compete at the debut and second feature movie contest, for a first time there will be works from China, India, Georgia and Palestine. There will also be a Balkan and a documentary contest. Bulgarian short movies will fight for the Jameson Short Film Award. Bulgarian features, completed after March 2013 will be screened at the festival. Eight documentaries from this country are envisaged for premiere screenings too. Moreover, SFF will once again bring joy to the audience in the towns of Burgas, Plovdiv and Varna.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev