SOFIA: Just in time for the 17th edition of the Sofia International Film Festival which opens on 7 March 2013, the Cinema House has been fitted with new digital equipment.

SOFIA: The Bulgarian Parliament has put film tax incentives on hold indefinitely, following the veto of the Investment Encouragement Act by President Rosen Plevneliev.

SOFIA: Admissions and box office for domestic films saw decreases of 67 percent in 2012, when nine Bulgarian films drew 214,800 viewers and box office of 745,287 EUR.

BIARRITZ: A seven-film Bulgarian focus was the Central European highlight of the 26th International Festival of Audiovisual Programs (FIPA) held 22-27 January 2013.

SOFIA: Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev vetoed the Investment Encouragement Act, which outlined tax incentives for film productions, shortly after it passed a vote in Parliament.

SOFIA: Documentary film director and academic Marin Martschewski has been selected as the new director of the Bulgarian National Film Center (www.nfc.bg). He was officially nominated to the post by the Minister of Culture at the end of 2012 after a competition call by the Ministry.

SOFIA: FNE spoke with Stefan Kitanov on the challenges facing the development of the Sofia Film Fest and the distribution of European films in Eastern Europe.

SOFIA: The most important Sofia autumn film event Cinemania (www.kinomania.bg), which for the first year was also held in Plovdiv and Varna, reported record breaking audiences.

SOFIA: Borislav’s Kolev full-length documentary Stoichkov dedicated to the worldwide football legend Hristo Stoichkov and Ilian Metev’s Sofia’s Last Ambulance focused on the daily life of an ambulance team in the Bulgarian capital have started theatrical distribution in Bulgaria.

SOFIA: A parliamentary committee has changed an investment promotion law (www.parliament.bg) to allow Bulgaria to reward investors producing films with budgets over 400,000 leva (203,000 EUR) but the form of the incentives is yet to be determined.