Director Antoaneta Chetrafilova had extensive experience in animating and supervising animation productions before taking the helm of her first film.

Called “a girl's message to her Mother” by producers Mina Mileva and Vesela Kazakova the poetic animated film merges 2D and 3D animation.

Part of the 40,000 EUR budget of the film was financed by the Bulgarian National Film Center.

Because of Mum premiered in the Tricks for Kids competition programme at the 20th Stuttgart Festival. “This festival proved to be very important for us because it started our excellent partnership with Nikolaus Weißenhorn from German Stumm-Film,” Mileva told FNE. Having worked as animation director herself, mostly in the UK, Mileva also created the visual concept of the film. Kazakova, a talented actress (Stolen Eyes, Prima Primavera), did the voice-over.

Because of Mum won Best Animation and Best Short Film at the Phoenix Comicon film festival and won the Best Director and Best Debut awards at the Bulgarian Film Academy Awards.

“We did not expect that one day the ARTE audience would be able to see our film. Naturally, are honored and proud!” the producers added.

Credits:

Script and Direction: Аntoaneta Chetrafilova

Art Direction: Кrikor Sarkisian

Visual Concept and Postproduction: Mina Mileva

Original Music: Emilian Gatsov

Animation: Аntoaneta Chetrafilova, Mina Mileva, Orlin Nikolov

Compositing and Visual effects: Orlin Nikolov, Stefan Vichev, Mina Mileva

Editing: Donka Ivanova

Sound design: Mariana Valkanova, Emilian Gatsov; Sound mix: Ivan Andreev

Voice over: Vesela Kazakova