More than 7000 individuals voted online to select the winners for first Art.gbg.bg Annual Art Awards. The competition was organised by the internet portal for art and culture, in partnership with United Bulgarian Bank, to recognise accomplishments in 2007.

The general public was able to vote via art.gbg.bg from February 25 to March 25 2008. The five categories, each encompassing five nominees, in which awards were granted were headed by a name that figured influentially in the given field.

In the theatre category, headed by actress Tsvetana Maneva, the plays nominated were August Strindberg's The Dance of Death, produced at Sfumato Theatre-Workshop; Roumen Tsonev's Rhythm and Blues, at Little City Theatre off the Channel; Short Play for a Child's Room by Yana Borissova, at Theatre 199; Chekhov's The Seagull, at Theatre Bulgarska Armiya; and a play by Hanoch Levine at Theatre 199. Voters chose The Seagull, which was produced by Krikor Azaryan.

In the category of best book of 2007, where nominees were Духless (Douhless, ie, Soulless) by Sergei Minaev, Istanbul by Orhan Pamuk, Черната кутия/The Black Box by Alek Popov, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami and Travesuras de la niña mala by Mario Vargas Llosa, it was Popov's novel that won. Literary historian and poet Yordan Eftimov chaired the committee.

Headed by the music critic and producer Ekaterina Docheva, the concert category comprised the contestants Kremerata Baltika, for the orchestra's concert as part of Rousse's March Music Days 2007; Sofia Soloists, directed by Plamen Djourov with Albena Danailova on violin; director Vladimir Spivakov and the Moscow Virtuoso Orchestra for their work together; Nigel Kennedy's October concert in Sofia; and director Emil Tabakov with the BNR Symphonic Orchestra, Mixed Chorus and Children's Chorus. Kennedy's gig was selected as concert of the year.

The exhibition category saw as nominees Boris Missirkov/Georgi Bogdanov for their photography exhibition at Sofia City Art Gallery entitled По следите на светлото бъдеще/On the Tracks of the Bright Future; Pavel Koichev for Преносителят/The Carrier, held at SIBank Gallery, in which sculptures of donkeys were garnished with sun-coloured rays, recalling the donkey that carried Christ into Jerusalem; Günther Uecker's exhibition at Sofia City Art Gallery named Mistreated Man: 14 Pacified Implements; a jubilee exhibition dedicated to painter Petar Mladenov (1887-1978) held at Shipka 6; and the two exhibitions at National Gallery for Foreign Art of works of architects Zaha Hadid in May-June, and Sir Norman Foster in December 2007-January 2008.

Art historian Vessela Hristova-Radoeva headed the exhibitions category, in which the Missirkov & Bogdanov show received the most votes.

Apollonia, Bulgaria's annual festival of arts that has been around since 1984, won in the festivals category, chaired by journalist Panayot Denev. The other nominees were Варненско лято/Varna Summer, an international theatre festival; Мартенски музикални дни/March Music Days in Rousse; the 10th Bansko Jazz Festival and the 11th Sofia International Film Festival.

Awards will be conferred at a ceremony on May 24 2008. The award itself is a statue of a small dolphin, which is a reproduction of a currency in use during the sixth to fifth centuries BCE.