As main organiser of the event the National Palace of Culture (www.ndk.bg) announced that the sixty two foreign and two Bulgarian films sold at the highest ticket price of five and the lowest – of one Euro, reached a box office of 30 000 Euro.

This year the second edition of the Sofia French Film Festival, organised by the French Cultural Institute (www.institutfrance.bg) was also part of Cinemania. The box office of the ten French films is equal to 2500 Euro.

“A single screening of Woody Allen’s To Rome with Love had over 4000 spectators in the big hall of the National Palace of Culture. For the last ten years this is an unknown event” said a member of the production team.

According to Hermina Azarian, manager at the National Palace of Culture “Cinemania was created 26 years ago, during the communist regime. It was the the first open door to the world in Bulgaria, a country that at the time was behind the Iron Curtain. Thanks to Cinemania we were able to see films, about which we were only reading.”

Cinemania was also financially supported by the Sofia-based America for Bulgaria foundation (www.americaforbulgaria.org), which provided ten classic and childrens’ films.

According to the organisers the enlargement of Cinemania to two additional towns “is a good precondition for a higher box office next year.”