The Sofia Film Festival's International Competition for First and Second Feature Films is being held for the 24th year, and its jury will be responsible for awarding the Grand Prize "Sofia - City of Film", provided by the Sofia Municipality.
Ralitza Petrova’s debut feature “Godless” became a phenomenon with its success at Locarno and the Golden Leopard award, subsequently winning the Grand Prize for Best Film at Sofia Film Festival. Her next project “Lust” was eagerly awaited and will have its world premiere at one of the most prestigious festivals in the world – Berlinale, in the “Forum” section. The story follows Lillian, who works as a psychologist in an American prison, and after the death of her unknown father is forced to return to her hometown in Bulgaria. Passing through unresolved debts, institutional inertia and a decaying body stuck in a bureaucratic vacuum, the film traces the convergence of mourning, the body and the fragile border between power and submission. “Lust” looks at the emptiness left by absent fathers and the burden that daughters continue to live with. The film is a psychodrama that moves between mystery, the imaginary and the ghostly - not to resolve the issues, but to trace how it shakes control and sometimes opens a gap,” shares Ralitsa Petrova. The cast includes Snejanka Mihaylova, Nikola Mutafov, Mihail Milchev, Alexis Atmadjov; the cinematographer is Julian Atanasov. The film is produced by its screenwriter and director for Aporia Filmworks (Bulgaria), in collaboration with Poli Angelova and Nikolay Todorov for Screening Emotions (Bulgaria), with the support of the Bulgarian NFC Agency. The co-producers are the Danish company Snowglobe and the Swedish company Silver Films, with the support of the Danish Film Institute, Film I Vast and Eurimages.
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"Women Out of Order" is the second full-length feature film by Alexander Kossev, whom the audience know as the director of the successful and beloved film "Petya of My Petya", watched by over 100,000 viewers in Bulgarian cinemas. The plot of the new work, whose screenwriter is Neli Dimitrova, intertwines the stories of four women, each of whom is at a different stage of her life. And although their problems are of a completely different nature, all four cannot get rid of the obsessive feeling that the meaninglessness around them is increasingly overwhelming. In conflict with age, femininity, love and pain, they desire change - extreme, painful, and unconditionally life-giving. Their emotions are conveyed by the actors Silvia Lulcheva, Albena Pavlova, Elena Atanasova, Alexandra Kostova, Vladimir Penev, Julian Vergov and others. The film's cinematographer is Mihail Yanakiev, the music is by Georgi Strezov, and the producer is Nikolay Urumov (Auris Film / BOF Pictures).
Stay tuned for information about the other films in the International Competition and the programme of the 30th Sofia Film Festival!
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