Russian director Anna Melikyan’s film Rusalka (Русалка, meaning mermaid) won the title of best film at the 12th Sofia International Film Festival. The festival’s awards ceremony was held on March 15 at NDK (National Palace of Culture) in Sofia.
The international jury, comprised of head of the jury Jos Stelling (the Netherlands), Dom Rotheroe (the UK), Iglika Triffonova (Bulgaria), Srdjan Golubovic (Serbia) and Aleksei Popogrebsky (Russia), all directors, selected Melikyan’s film from among the 190 presented at the festival for the skill shows in its direction, cinematography, storyboard, and acting, and doing so with energy and conviction. The recognition comprises a certificate, statuette and 5000 euro.
The special prize of the international jury went to The Bird Can’t Fly, a Dutch-South African-British film by the director Threes Anna, for having created a singular and magical world.
Out of the 12 films in the Bulgarian short film category, it was Семейна терапия (Family Therapy) by Petar Vulchanov that won the Jameson award, for the manner in which it combined black humour and dramatic intensity. To go along with the recognition, Vulchanov received a certificate, a statuette, 6000 euro and a secured supply of the Irish whiskey.
Selected by the Guild of Bulgarian Cinema Critics, the No Man’s Land award for best Balkan film went to 4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) by Romania’s Cristian Mungiu. The director had presented the poignant and painful movie at an Odeon Cinema screening on March 13.
Stefan Komandarev’s film Светът е голям и спасение дебне отвсякъде (The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner), based on a novel by Ilija Trojanow, took home the Kodak prize for best Bulgarian feature film.
The FIPRESCI (Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique) award, as chosen by the jury of Léo Soesanto, Kerem Akca and Antoniya Kovacheva, went to Bulgarian director Lyudmil Todorov’s film Шивачки (Seamstresses), for it being an “honest and refreshing story of unrealised dreams and the beauty of hope in contemporary Bulgaria, filmed in a classic and modest way”.
Winning again, this time in the eyes of the public, was The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner, a Bulgarian-German-Slovenia-Hungarian co-production.
To give recognition to the development of contemporary Bulgarian cinematography, the journalism faculty of Sofia University selected for its Gorchivata Chasha (Bitter Cup) prize the film P.V.C.-1, by Spiros Stathoulopoulos.
And for their overall contribution to cinema, Sofia municipality conferred upon director and screenwriter Vladislav Ikonomov, director Nikita Mikhalkov, composer Milcho Leviev, actor Miki Manojlovic and screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere the Sofia award.
