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FESTIVALS Bulgaria

Sofia IFF prepares for its 20th edition

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- The festival will kick off on 10 March with Iglika Triffonova’s The Prosecutor, the Defender, the Father and His Son

Sofia IFF prepares for its 20th edition
The Prosecutor, the Defender, the Father and His Son by Iglika Triffonova

Bulgaria’s most important film festival and one of the most popular in Eastern Europe, the Sofia International Film Festival, is getting ready for its 20th-anniversary edition. “Twenty is a symbol of youth, but 20 is also a symbol of maturity,” say the organisers in a press release announcing the first titles in competition, famous special guests and special programmes.

After its debut at Black Nights in November, Iglika Triffonova’s The Prosecutor, the Defender, the Father and His Son [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Iglika Triffonova
film profile
]
will screen as the opening movie of the 20th edition, on 10 March. It will mark the beginning of 11 days of cinema events in Sofia, followed, until the end of the month, by smaller editions in Burgas, Plovdiv and Varna. A total of 150 fiction and documentary features, and 50 short films, are in the selection.

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The festival has also announced seven of the 13 films competing for the top award. Besides the two Bulgarian productions, Svetla Tsotsorkova’s Thirst [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Svetla Tsotsorkova
film profile
]
and Ventsislav Vasilev’s Snow [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, other European titles are Tomás Weinreb and Petr Kazda’s I, Olga Hepnarova [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Tomáš Weinreb, Petr Kazda
film profile
]
(Poland), Marina Seresesky’s The Open Door [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(Spain), David Farr’s The Ones Below [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(UK) and Elias Demetriou’s Smac [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(Greece).

Among the most interesting sidebars at the 20th edition are the Big Awards programme, with winning films selected at the most prestigious film festivals; Cinema Today – The Masters, with the most recent films directed by the cinema greats; and Cinema Tomorrow – Discoveries, a selection of films directed by the most promising new voices of cinema.

In total, 250 foreign guests are expected at the festival, among them Terry Gilliam, who will be the recipient of the Sofia Award for his contribution to the art of cinema.

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