It seems that the year 2008 has been one of the most successful in modern Bulgarian cinema to date. The Ministry of Culture made a special announcement to this effect on July 8, in which it highlighted some of the notable films and directors that have been given recognition worldwide.

At the Berlin International Film Festival, held annually in February, two Bulgarian films were selected for screening - the first time that the country has had representation at the event in six years. Boris Despodov's documentary Corridor # 8 won the prize for a film from the Forum, awarded by the Ecumenical Jury. The other Bulgarian film shown at the Berlinale was The Air Ace, a nine-minute animation by Svilen Dimitrov.

The Moscow International Film Festival in June included four Bulgarian films in its 2008 programme. As reported by The Sofia Echo on June 29, Yavor Gurdev won the best director Silver George award at the 30th Moscow event with his début film Zift. The other three Bulgarian films screened were Stefan Komandarev's The World is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner/Светът е голям и спасение дебне отвсякъде, Zlatina Rousseva's documentary Against the Stream/Срещу течението, and We Were Young/А бяхме млади (1960) by Binka Zhelyazkova.

Zhelyazkova's film was included in the so-called happy dozen of countries that comprised the The Discoveries of the Moscow Film Festival retrospective.

This is the first time that Bulgaria has been so well represented at the Moscow festival.

The neo-noir/sots-art movie Zift has also been invited to events in Pusan, South Korea, and Thessaloniki, Greece.

As to The World is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner, which won both the Audience Award and the Best Bulgarian Feature Film prize at the 2008 Sofia International Film Festival, its future can only improve - it has been invited to 10 additional festivals, among which are those in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Warsaw, Poland; Motovun, Croatia; Palić, Serbia; Tallinn, Estonia; Haifa, Israel; and Trieste, Italy.

It is expected that at least five other Bulgarian films will also be selected for other such international forums, the Ministry of Culture said.

At the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, held this year from July 4 to 12, Lyudmil Todorov's Seamstresses/Шивачки and, again, The World is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner received screen time.

Director Milena Andonova (Monkeys in Winter) was selected to be part of the East of the West - Works in Progress jury; film critic and researcher Antonia Kovacheva was selected as one of the five members of the FIPRESCI jury.