The film celebration, which ran through the month of November, presented 183 screening of 70 new films, bringing in 23,860 admissions and over 110,000 EUR in box office. The two main retrospectives, including 12 Fellini films, four Roberts De Niro films and a special screening of India For Ever in memory of director Ranguel Valchanov who recently passed away, were free of charge. Five cinemas participated in Sofia’s most important autumn film event organised by the National Palace of Culture: Hall 1 by the Palace with 3,200 seats; the Lumiere cinema with 350 seats; the House of cinema with 260 seats; the Odeon cinema with 156 seats; and the Eurocinema with 80 seats. The ten films of the Sofia French Film Festival, which the French Cultural Institute organised as part of Cinemania for the second time, were seen by 5,800 viewers.

“The results are slightly inferior to those we had last year. But this year Cinemania took place in the midst of the most intensive university occupations by students, so a big part of the traditional younger audience did not to go to the cinemas. If we would not have had those extraordinary events, we would certainly have better results than last year,” Hermina Azarian, manager at the National Palace of Culture and Head of Cinemania, told FNE. “But still, a single screening of Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine attracted over 3,000 people. Last year we had the same phenomenon with Allen’s To Rome with Love,”Azarian added.

She noted that 90% of the films are shown on DCP’s and that the National Palace of Culture management plans to digitalise its main exhibition places, Hall 1 and the Lumiere cinema. Azarian said this is probably going to happen “step by step.”