02/10/2020 - As many as 19 films were competing for the awards of the 38th Golden Rose Film Festival in Varna, Bulgaria

Director Ivaylo Hristov receiving the Golden Rose Trophy for Fear

The international jury has given its verdict, and the 2020 Golden Rose for Best Bulgarian Feature has gone to Ivaylo Hristov’s Fear [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ivaylo Hristov
film profile], “for the skill to narrate ironically a story about daunting challenges”. Fear also earned Svetlana Yancheva the Best Actress Award: in the film, she plays a village school teacher who takes an African refugee under her wing, protecting him from the villagers’ xenophobia.

The 38^th Golden Rose showed an interesting trend in Bulgarian cinema: actors taking on directorial duties and making impressive features. Besides Ivaylo Hristov, who has been forging a strong directing career alongside his impressive acting filmography, actress Yana Titova won the Best First Feature Award for her independent film A Dose of Happiness [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], which explores the challenges of a young mother fighting a heroin addiction. Even though he didn’t receive an award, actor Ivan Yurukov was in the running with his impressive, also independent, directorial debut, Till the Final Caprice.

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The jury, led by Bulgaria’s most popular directorial duo, Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov, also favoured Ivan Vladimirov’s Scenes from the Life of an Actress, which received as many as three gongs: the Special Jury Prize, Best Directing and Best Screenplay. A short-film jury decided that there would be no full Best Short Film Award, and so only a Special Mention was handed out, to Slava Doytcheva’s Eggshells.

Here are the award winners at the 38^th Golden Rose Film Festival:

Best Feature Film
Fear [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ivaylo Hristov
film profile] - Ivaylo Hristov (Bulgaria)

Special Jury Award
Scenes from the Life of an Actress - Ivan Vladimirov (Bulgaria)

The City of Varna Award
18% Grey [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Viktor Chouchkov
film profile] - Viktor Chouchkov (Bulgaria/Germany/Belgium/North Macedonia/Serbia)

Best Director
Ivan Vladimirov - Scenes from the Life of an Actress

Best Screenplay
Ivan Vladimirov - Scenes from the Life of an Actress

Best Cinematographer
Rumen Vassilev - Danny. Legend. God [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Yavor Petkov
film profile] (UK/Bulgaria)

Best Actress
Svetlana Yancheva - Fear

Best Actor
Ivan Barnev - Blessed Are the Meek (Bulgaria)

Best First Feature
A Dose of Happiness [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Yana Titova (Bulgaria)

Special Mention
Blessed Are the Meek - Georgi Stoyanov, Wojciech Todorow

Special Mention for Short Film
Eggshells - Slava Doytcheva (Bulgaria)