Iglika Trifonova creates stories that attract the love of the audience and the recognition of film professionals around the world alike. The plots of her works must go through her heart, be shared with her most loyal partners, she must find like-minded actors and then all together experience the birth of each subsequent film. She is a strong fighter and an emotional storyteller, and in 2022 she is chairwoman of the international jury of the 26th Sofia Film Fest. She is one of the winners of the Sofia Award of the Sofia Municipality - a well-deserved award for her contribution to the art of cinema in Bulgaria.
Iglika Trifonova was born on February 17, 1957 in Sofia. She graduated in "Film and Television Directing" at VITIZ in 1982 in the class of Georgi Dyulgerov, after which she began her career as a documentary film director. Her first films were "Summer of the Lord 1990" (1990, first prize at the Futura Festival in Berlin), "Possible Distances" (1992, with the prize at the Documentary Film Festival in Moldova), "Murder Stories" (1993), “Portrait of an Actress” (1994) and “On the Road“ (1995). She also worked as an assistant to Georgi Dyulgerov and Rangel Valchanov. In 2001, she made her feature film debut as a director and screenwriter with “Letter to America”. This is the first large-scale co-production in which Bulgaria is a leading country. Trusting the script and direction of Iglika Trifonova, the story of "Letter to America" is told by the actors Filip Avramov, Ana Papadopoulou and Petar Antonov. The film skillfully mixes feature film and documentary facts - a boy goes looking for an old Bulgarian song, "to resurrect" his best friend. "Letter to America" was the first film in the new millennium, which changed the reality of the box office charts in our country, entering the official Top 10 with the most watched films - a precedent for a Bulgarian film!
"Letter to America" was awarded six prizes at the Golden Rose Bulgarian Screen Film Festival in 2000, received the FIPRESCI Award at the Molodist Festival in Ukraine; the team was awarded the Don Quixote Award of the International Federation of Film Clubs (FICC) - Kiev 2001, the Grand Prize for Best Film - "Golden Chest", Plovdiv, 2001, the Special Jury Prize - Istanbul 2002, the Grand Prize Matadoro - Nordelik, The Netherlands 2003.
In 2003 Iglika Trifonova directed the play "Fans" at the “Tear and Laughter” Theater, written by Elin Rakhnev especially for Hristo Garbov and Valentin Tanev. She continued her work as a film director, in 2004 at the first edition of Sofia Meetings she presented, together with her longtime creative partner, producer Rositsa Valkanova, the project for their next film "Investigation", and after its completion in 2006 at the Festival " Golden Rose ”in Varna, the film received a special jury award, the Critics Award, for male actor (for Krassimir Dokov) and for cinematography (for Rally Ralchev). For the next film project of the duo Trifonova-Valkanova "The Prosecutor, the Defender, the Father and His Son", presented in the program of Sofia Meetings under the name "The False Witness" in 2008 was awarded at the Cannes Film Festival 2011 where they won the ScriptEast award for best best scenario in Central and Eastern Europe. After its world premiere in Tallinn and Gothenburg in 2015, it was with this film that opened the 20th anniversary edition of Sofia Film Fest in 2016. Iglika herself told “Dnevnik” that the work is extremely important to her - making a film about someone else's pain was a difficult existential task for me. It was my personal tribunal. " She continues from there. It's about what happens after a war - and the victims, and the perpetrators, and those who have to do justice. "
The premiere of Iglika Trifonova's next film "Elevator for Patients" was in the program of the 21st Sofia Film Fest 2017. The plot presents the story of two patients whose brief meeting in a hospital elevator can be fateful. For Dnes.bg, the director draws attention to the freedom with which she worked on the film: "In" Elevator for Patients "I allowed myself to work with the actors in an entirely improvisational mode. We worked with great excitement and decided to go even further - each of the actors put something personal in their role. There was a special, intimate incorporation into the drama of the film. Actors are not only interpreters, but also objects of study - real heroes ... "And he adds:" When I watch these moments, I get excited. I will always be deeply grateful to my actors for this trust and complicity. And I always wonder - will the audience discover the personal moments? I was happy to work with famous artists such as Hristo Garbov, Svetlana Yancheva, Boyka Velkova, Angelina Slavova, Yordan Bikov and with young actors Slava Doycheva, Mak Marinov, Alexander Benev and Tihomir Paunov."
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"Bulgarians are always torn between ecstasy and despair and we have to find a middle ground. When I was younger, I was terrified of the environment, it scared me. Today I realize that balance is most important. In our country, the center, which calms things down a bit, always misses us. Both in cinema and in politics. And this peace will bring us self-confidence. Otherwise, we go to some extremes, which is much more like a complex. When you sit for a long time in such a stretched state, it affects you and becomes a kind of permanent deformation. We begin to fall in love with the complaint and become addicted to it. And getting out of this deformity, stepping on one's feet again is always extremely painful. ” - Iglika Trifonova for “Tema” magazine, 2011
