“After months of emergency epidemic state in the country the festival will present a format fully adapted to the safety measures against the spread of the virus in the country,” the festival said in a statement on 16 June 2020.
The summer edition will take place under three forms: online for the territory of Bulgaria, at open-air venues, and in Sofia’s House of Cinema.
The initially announced opening film Petya of My Petya (BOF Pictures / Concept Studio), a debut feature by Alexander Kossev dedicated to the memory of the early deceased cult poet Petya Dubarova, will be replaced by Bong Joon-ho’s global hit Parasite. The opening screening will take place at a newly constructed open air space near the National Palace of Culture, Platform A6.
The online part of the Sofia FF will include 80 titles and will be realised in cooperation with Festival Scope and Shift 72. The films will be selected primarily from the Official, Balkan, Documentary and Short film competitions. They will be available for a specified number of screenings over a period of some three weeks. According to the festival, for the first time in its history the programmes will be watched simultaneously by different audiences throughout the whole country.
The autumn edition will screen mainly Bulgarian documentaries and feature films which will have their premieres in Sofia. Depending on the COVID-19 situation, the festival will also welcome film directors who had confirmed their participation earlier this year.
Programme (Announced in March 2020):
18 % Grey (Bulgaria, Germany, Serbia, North Macedonia, Belgium)
Directed by Viktor Chouchkov Jr.
Produced by The Chouchkov Brothers
Coproduced by Ostlicht Filmproduktion, Cinnamon Films, Sektor Film, Raised by Wolves, the Bulgarian National Television
Supported by the Bulgarian National Film Center, MDM, Film Center Serbia, the North Macedonia Film Agency, Creative Europe Programme – MEDIA
How To Fake a War (UK)
Directed by Rudolph Herzog
Cleo (Belgium)
Directed by Eva Cools
A Simple Man (Greece)
Directed by Tasos Gerakinis
Send Me to the Clouds (China)
Directed by Congcong Teng
Steppe (Turkey)
Directed by Ali Özel
A Fish Swimming Upside Down (Germany)
Directed by Eliza Petkova
Motherland (Lithuania, Latvia, Germany, Greece)
Directed by Tomas Vengris
Produced by Studio Uljana Kim
Coproduced by Locomotive Productions, Heimat Hafen Films, Faliro House
Supported by the the Lithuanian Film Centre, the National Film Centre of Latvia, Eurimages, Creative Europe Programme – MEDIA
Sister (Bulgaria, Qatar)
Directed by Svetla Tsotsorkova
Produced by Omega Films
Coproduced by the Doha Film Institute
Nocturnal (UK)
Directed by Nathalie Biancheri
Those Who Remained (Hungary)
Directed by Barnabás Tóth
Yalda, a Night for Forgiveness (France, Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Iran, Lebanon)
Directed by Massoud Bakhshi
