There are four upcoming days of exciting screenings of Bulgarian films in Paris. From September 10 to 13, the Bulgarian Cinema Festival will be held in the French capital and its sixth edition is under the motto "Stronger Together".

"This year, we wish to show international co-productions with Bulgaria and the three feature films in the program are such co-productions,” says Rumena Ivanova, part of the volunteer team behind the first and only independent forum for Bulgarian cinema in France. “The other reason for choosing the topic ‘Stronger Together’ is that we want to focus on young Bulgarian cinema and the fact that it has our support. That is why one of the days is dedicated to short films from Bulgaria. We have 6 selected films that will compete for the audience award and the award of the jury."

The audience in the "Grand Action" movie theater and the viewers in Bulgaria have a big role:

"Thanks to one of our partners, the Bulgarian cinema platform gledam.bg, all people in Bulgaria can watch the 6 short films and vote for their favourite one until September 12. Then we will collect the audience's votes in the cinema hall in Paris and those from Bulgaria and we will announce the audience's favourite film. The film must be a dialogue. It should be felt. I would say that all six films are very different, so we look forward to see which will be the favourites of the audience and the jury."

By watching the films from the selected program, Bulgarians will support the festival team, which has been working for the presentation of Bulgarian cinema in Paris since 2017.

"Many people have invested volunteer work in this initiative since its inception and it is very difficult for this type of initiative to happen due to the lack of finances," Rumena Ivanova says.

She is originally from Varna and for 12 years has been making her way in the world of the seventh art, studying and working in Europe - Germany, the Czech Republic, France. She regularly participates in volunteer projects, as the latest of them is the Festival of Bulgarian Cinema in Paris. She does not hide that the financial difficulties accompanying such an undertaking are discouraging: "We do a lot of things with personal funds, although it shouldn't be this way because we are volunteers and because this cause is very important."

It is important for the young Bulgarian cinema to have contact with the film industry in Europe and around the world, therefore the meetings and discussions after the screenings are an essential part of the festival in Paris. The forum will be opened with a screening of the film "The Shameless" by Konstantin Bojanov - a successful co-production of Bulgaria and several other countries with an award for a female role from the Cannes Festival. A special guest at the opening will be the French producer of the movie.

As a graduate of La Fémis film academy, successful Bulgarian director Kamen Kalev has accepted the cause of the forum and will head the jury.

"A member of the jury is Leo Ortuno, who is also the selector of the short film program at the Cannes Festival. Elizabeth Kormanova is another member of the jury - a Bulgarian, a graduate of the Sorbonne, who works in the UK for a very large film distribution company. The fourth member on the jury is Madalena Valencia - a director who graduated this year from the French Academy La Fémis,” Rumena says.

Among the main partners of the event are the Bulgarian Cultural Institute and the Bulgarian embassy in Paris, Krastyo Sarafov National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts, as well as the French Cultural Institute in Sofia, which will take over the baton and show part of the Bulgarian films with French subtitles in the period September 13 to September 28.

Publication in English: Alexander Markov

Photos: bgfilmfest.eu, institutfrancais.bg, E. Karkalanova