15-03-2010

Russian One War wins Sofia IFF award

By Pavlina Jeleva
    Vera Glagoleva's debut drama One War, treating the tragic fate of exiled Soviet mothers with children by German fathers during World War II, was awarded the Grand Prix of the 14-th Sofia IFF (www.siff.bg/).

    The president of the international jury Pierre-Henri Deleau delivered the €5,000 award to the producer of the film Natalia Ivanova. He expressed his satisfaction on the "healthy growth" of the festival that celebrated its official FIAPF accreditation for the first time this year. "The accreditation is focused on the competition and makes it 'official' for first and second films," said the festival director Stefan Kitanov.

    The 2010 festival edition (March 5-25) presented 104 features, 37 documentaries and 83 shorts in Sofia, with satellite festival screenings in Plovdiv (March 11-21) and in Bourgas (March 11-19). For the first time, with 240 foreign guests in attendance, it presented a focus on Bulgarian cinema. Svetoslav Ovcharov's Voice Over, about the activities of the secret police and the intelligentsia during the communist regime, opened the festival. Kiran Kolarov's romantic drama If Somebody Loves You was chosen as closing film.

    Both films were shown in the 4,000 seat main hall of the Sofia National Palace of Culture, which also housed the premiere of Stanimir Trifonov's Glass River The film is the story of a young French woman who searches her Bulgarian roots after the death of her father.

    The Bulgarian competition entry Eastern Plays by Kamen Kalev was awarded with a Special mention and the Kodak prize for best Bulgarian film (negative and laboratory services for the amount of $4,000).

    The Last Summer of la Boyita by Julia Solomonoff received the Special award of the jury. Serbian Miroslav Momcilovic was announced as best director for his Wait For Me And I Will Not Come.