07-06-2012

Bulgarian Lifetime Achievement Award for Tosheva

By Pavlina Jeleva

    SOFIA: One of Bulgaria's most valued film prizes, the Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award was given to the eminent documentary director Nevena Tosheva who marks her ninetieth birthday.

    Co-organised by the Union of the Bulgarian Film Makers (www.filmmakersbg.com) and the Bulgarian National Film Centre (www.nfc.bg) and with the support of Eurobet (www.eurobet.bg) the official ceremony held at the Sofia National Palace of culture (www.ndk.bg) was broadcast by the Bulgarian National Television (www.bnt.bg).

    The annual national film awards are decided by the votes of nearly 500 members.

    "You are an artist who made a huge contribution to the establishment and the development of the Bulgarian documentary school," the president of the Union of the Bulgarian Film Makers, director Georgy Stoyanov said in a written statement.

    Tosheva started her career in 1956 making newsreels. She soon wrote and directed her first creative documentary Three Teachers which revealed her talent for observation. Her long film career includes over 50 documentaries, many of them awarded at international film festivals. Most popular are Etude (1964), shown in Cannes and Bergamo, The Team (1976), winner of the Special Jury Award at the International Short Film Festival in Moscow, and Teachers (1982), carrier of the Golden Thracian Rhyton at the Festival of Short Films in Plovdiv. Undoubtedly, her most discussed film remains The Phenomenon (1977) focussed on the prophetic abilities of a unique woman known by the name of Baba Vanga.