SOFIA: The 16th edition of the Sofia Meetings coproduction market, set to take place from 13 to 17 March 2019 within the 23rd Sofia International Film Fest will host 34 projects of first, second and third films. The Works in Progress section will screen 23 titles still in postproduction.
SOFIA: The Bulgarian National Film Center will increase the annual amount of film funding by 12.19 percent from 6,411,600 EUR in 2018 to 7,192,854 EUR in 2019. The support for minority coproductions will raise by nearly 50 percent from 613,550 EUR in 2018 to 919,814 EUR in 2019.
The year 2018 turned out to be extremely complex for the Bulgarian film industrу. Public support for film was blocked and the Bulgarian National Film Center was forbidden to allot financing. The restrictive measure was applied because the country had failed to adjust its film and audiovisual legislation to the European requirements within the official deadline of 12 December 2017.
SOFIA: Bulgaria’s National Film Center is organising the celebration of the National Cinema Day on 13 January 2019. The official event will be once again performed in close collaboration with the National Palace of Culture and the Sofia Municipality. Fifteen new feature and documentary films will be screened on 12 and 13 January 2019 in five theatres in Sofia, one in Varna and one in Plovdiv.
SOFIA: The Bulgarian National Film Center distributed 1,804,860 EUR / 3,530,000 BGN to 10 feature films including two feature films with higher budgets, two feature films with lower budgets, two debut features and four short films. Two minority coproductions will share an additional amount of 153,388 EUR / 300,000 BNG.
SOFIA: Bulgaria’s Parliament voted on 15 November 2018 to adopt the definitive amendments to the Film Industry Act, proposed by the Council of Ministers in August 2018. The new changes follow the amendments adopted on 6 March 2018 and will finally bring the existing state film aid schemes in line with the European Commission’s Communication on State Aid for Films and Other Audiovisual Works (2013/C 332/01).
SOFIA: The Hollywood star Sylvester Stallone returns to Bulgaria to begin shooting his highly-anticipated sequel Rambo 5 aka Rambo V: Last Blood. The fifth installment of the action sequence famously launched with First Blood in 1982 is financed by Millennium Media and produced by Avi Lerner and Kevin King, and will be serviced by Sofia-based Nu Boyana Film Studios.
VARNA: Milko Lazarov’s drama Ága won six awards, including the Golden Rose award, at the 36th Golden Rose National Film Festival (27 September - 4 October 2018).
VARNA: Egle Vertelyte’s debut film Miracle will screen in the main competition of the 36th Golden Rose National Film Festival (27 September - 4 October 2018). The film is a Lithuanian/Bulgarian/Polish coproduction shot by the eminent Bulgarian DoP Emil Christov.
VARNA: Lyubomir Mladenov’s sophomore feature A Ship in a Room will screen in the main competition of the 36th Golden Rose National Film Festival (27 September - 4 October 2018). The film vied in the official competition of the 30th Tokyo IFF in 2017.
