For 28th year Sofia International Film Festival will gather together in Sofia films, guests, stars, journalists and cinema fans from 13 until 31 March 2024.
Featured in Variety’s Top 50 of cinema festivals, the event presents Bulgaria to the world as the host one of the important film festivals in Europe and takes place annually in March.
SOFIA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL is the leading film festival in Bulgaria. It began in 1997 and attracts more than 70 000 spectators annually. The festival aims to promote important and innovative works of modern world cinema to local audiences and regional Bulgarian and Balkan cinema to international audiences, as well as to encourage cooperation between local and international filmmakers.
Since 2003 the festival has International Competition for first and second films and is included in the FIPRESCI calendar. Since 2009 there is International documentary competition. In 2007 Variety placed Sofia IFF among the Top 50 world unmissable film events. In 2010 Sofia IFF was accredited by FIAPF as a competitive specialized feature film festival and became the only Bulgarian film festival recognized by FIAPF nowadays. Since 1997 more than 3 000 feature films and documentaries have been screened within the festival’s framework. Since its creation the director of the festival has been Stefan Kitanov.
MORE THAN 1800 internationally acclaimed filmmakers, young talents and producers have attended the festival over the last twenty years, including Emin Alper, Radivoje Andric, Stefan Arsenijevic, Karl Baumgartner, Claudia Cardinale, Jean-Claude Carriere, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Geraldine Chaplin, Ada Condeescu, Cedomir Collar, Denis Cote, Jan Cvitkovic, Pierre-Henri Deleau, Zeki Demirkubuz, Nana Djordjadze, Mike Downey, Srdjan Dragojevic, Guorgy Durst, Abel Ferrara, Fridrik Thor Fridrikson, Costa-Gavras, Terry Gilliam, Tudor Giurgiu, Vera Glagoleva, Srdan Golubovic, Peter Greenaway, Selim Gunes, Dušan Hanak, Bent Hamer, Veit Helmer, Agnieszka Holland, Jan Hrebejk, Hugh Hudson, Otar Iosseliani, Terry Jones, Radu Jude, Srdjan Karanovic, Mika Kaurismaki, Chulpan Khamatova, Ilya Khrzanovski, Bakhtyar Khudojnazarov, Andrei Konchalovski, Srdjan Koljevic, Ted Kotcheff, Sylvia Kristel, Emir Kusturica, Sergei Loznitsa, Patrick McGrath, David Mackenzie, Miki Manojlovic, Goran Markovic, Samuel Maoz, Ketan Mehta, Anna Melikyan, Jiri Menzel, Dusan Milic, Nikita Mikhalkov, Alexander Mindadze, Miroslav Momcilovic, Giuliano Montaldo, Ana Moreira, Kornel Mundruczo, Cristian Mungiu, Franco Nero, George Ovashvili, Michael Palin, Tony Palmer, Jafar Panahi, Sir Alan Parker, Goran Paskaljevic, Pawel Pavlikowski, Babak Payami, Sergio Pelone, Simon Perry, Joao Nuno Pinto, Alexei Popogrebski, Cristi Puju, Nik Powell, Goran Radovanovic, Katja Riemann, Alexander Rodnyansky, Ljubisa Samardjic, Jerry Schatzberg, Lone Scherfig, Volker Schlondorff, Assumpta Serna, Karen Shakhnazarov, Siegfrid, Ada Solomon, Sergey Solovyov, Jos Stelling, Unni Straume, Jan Sverak, Janos Szasz, Danis Tanovic, Bela Tarr, Paolo Taviani, Dito Tsintsadze, Evgeny Tsymbal, Jim Stark, Jan Troell, Yesim Ustaoglu, Agnes Varda, Michael Wadleigh, Wim Wenders, Dror Zahavi, Krzysztof Zanussi, Petr Zelenka, Andrzej Zulawski.
The festival is organized by Art Fest under the auspices of the Municipality of Sofia and in partnership with the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture, the National Palace of Culture, the National Film Center and the Bulgarian National Television with the support of the MEDIA programme of the European Commission, national and foreign cultural institutes and sponsors.