The award ceremony took place during the Europa Cinemas annual conference in Paris (22-25 November 2012). Europa Cinemas celebrated its 20th anniversary this year with more than 700 exhibitors, distributors, sales agents and other film professionals in attendance. Since its founding in 1992, the Europa Cinemas has grown to a network of nearly 3000 screens in 68 countries.

The Award for Best Entrepreneur of the Year 2012 pays tribute to the commitment of Stefan Kitanov and his team, who for the past 20 years have tirelessly championed the dissemination of European cinema in Bulgaria. Kitanov has been manager of Dom na Kinoto (Cinema House, www.domnakinoto.com) since 1992.

He is also engaged in production and distribution. He has produced more than 12 films, the most successful of which is The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner directed by Stephan Komandarev. The film shortlisted for the Foreign Language Oscar and was released in over 100 countries. But Kitanov is perhaps best known as the director of the Sofia International Film Festival (www.siff.bg) which he founded in 1997.

Europa Cinemas awards 2012 for the Best Exhibitors of the Network:
Best Programming: Stephane Libs, Star, Strasbourg
Best Young Audience Activities: Wulf Sorgel and Iris Prafke, Moviemento, Berlin
Entrepreneur of the Year: Stefan Kitanov: Dom no Kinoto, Sofia

Print version of FNE's Cinema of the Month, published in honour of the Europa Cinemas conference 2012 is available for download in .pdf format.

Students attend a special screening of "Loverboy" at Cinema House, in Sofia