After three years during which the total yearly production funding was capped at €6.74 million, the Bulgarian National Film Center has announced a significant increase for 2019: €7.52 million will be shared by fiction features, documentaries, animations, low-budget projects and short films.

But the biggest increase that the institution has planned for 2019 is a hike of as much as 53% for the support of minority co-productions, from approximately €600,000 in 2018 to €920,000 this year. The rise is particularly significant, given the amounts from 2016 (€862,000) and 2017 (€698,000). The total of €920,000 will be distributed over four sessions, with the winning projects to be announced in March, May, September and November.

Jana Karaivanova, the director of the centre, tells Cineuropa that she considers co-productions “vital for the Bulgarian film industry. [...] It is almost impossible for a European film to be funded solely through national financing nowadays. Co-productions are beneficial both financially and creatively. The cross-cultural element that they bring enriches the European identity of our movies, while the funding and distribution opportunities are multiplied,” she explains.

Karaivanova also tells Cineuropa that the centre has a number of other big plans for 2019. “We hope to introduce incentives for foreign investors in our film law and to align our film industry with the rest of the European countries,” she says. The centre will also invest in its two national film festivals, Golden Rose (for fiction films) and Golden Rhyton (for documentaries), with plans to invite international juries to judge the selected films.