Diary of the 24th Sofia International Film Festival
Day 15, Thursday
INTRODUCTION
Dear Friends,
On Day 15 we will present two Bulgarian feature films from the previous year. “Cat in the Wall” is the feature debut of Mina Mileva and Vesela Kazakova that premiered in Locarno 2019 and had a successful festival run around the world. “Reunion” by Niki Iliev is one of the 8 independent Bulgarian films, created without any government support, in the program of the 24th SIFF and it turned into a box-office hit last year. In today’s programme is also the premiere of Lubomir Halatchev’s documentary “Stories of Birds, Men and Other Wonders” about the genius Bulgarian writer Yordan Radichkov.
We will present a few other films from the Day 15 programme – “About Endlessness” by Roy Andersson, “House of Cardin” by P. David Ebersole and Todd Hughes, “The Sweet Hereafter” by Atom Egoyan, “The Wild Goose Lake” by Yi'nan Diao and “Atlantis” by Valentin Vasyanovych.
The short film of today’s Day 15 of our virtual Diary is “Life with Sofia” by Svetla Tsotsorkova. The film won the Jameson Short Film Award in 2004 and was selected from Sofia for the “Semaine de la critique” in Cannes.
We will recollect some memories with photos and full cinema halls from different Thursdays' screenings at SFF of the films "The Florida Project" by Sean Baker, "The Pig" by Drago Sholev, "Dad Made Dirty Movies" by Jordan Todorov, "Zhaleika" by Elitsa Petkova.
It is time to present the second part of the special masterclass at Cinema House given by the cult independent American director Abel Ferrara.
The musical greeting of the day is the song "Vow", composed by Kiril Marichkov - Sofia Award winner of 23rd SIFF and founder of the rock band The Crickets, the favorite of several Bulgarian generations music fans. As part of the remarkable film "Yesterday" by Ivan Andonov, the song "Vow" is among the most successful songs in the history of Bulgarian cinema.
On Day 15, Thursday, there are 16 films scheduled for screening in 24th SIFF programme.
We will see them!
Yours,
Stefan Kitanov - Kita
Director of SIFF
NEW BULGARIAN FEATURES: CAT IN THE WALL
NEW BULGARIAN FEATURES: REUNION
NEW BULGARIAN DOCUMENTARY FEATURES:
STORIES OF BIRDS, MEN AND OTHER WONDERS
SFF SHORT FILMS: LIFE WITH SOFIA
We present to you Bulgarian short film "Life with Sofia" by Svetla Tsotsorkova, winner of the Jameson Award for Bulgarian short film in 2004. This was the second edition of the competition, initiated in 2003 in a partnership between Sofia Film Festival and Jameson Irish Whiskey.
The actor Samuel Finzi, member of the 8th SIFF International Jury, presents Jameson Award to Svetla Tsotsorkova. On the left side you can see the special festival guest, the American director Jerry Schatzberg.
"Живот със София" / "Life with Sofia" from Art Fest on Vimeo.
FILM OF THE DAY: ABOUT ENDLESSNESS
FILM OF THE DAY: HOUSE OF CARDIN
It is a tradition throughout the years to present intriguing films about fashion and it keeps running in partnership with Vogue Vision – Mitko Damov and our old friends and partners – Domaine Boyar. Last year we presented the documentary by Deyan Parouchev “Timeless Beauty” (China-France) and our special Fashion Gala event was hosted by City Stage.
Elina Spassova (Domaine Boyar), Mitko Damov (Vogue Vision), Mira Staleva (SIFF)
FILM OF THE DAY: THE SWEET HEREAFTER
FILM OF THE DAY: THE WILD GOOSE LAKE
FILM OF THE DAY: ATLANTIS
PHOTO ON THIS DAY AT SOFIA FILM FESTIVAL
On the 15th of March 2012, Thursday, the documentary “Dad Made Dirty Movies” was presented at the Military Club by director Jordan Todorov, producer Martichka Bozhilova and team.
On the 12th of March 2015, Thursday, we took a picture of the Documentary Jury of 19th SIFF - Sean McAllister (United Kingdom), Svetoslav Draganov (Bulgaria) and Svetla Turnin (Canada) just before the screening of the Academy Award Winner “Citizenfour”, directed by Laura Poitras.
On the 17th of March 2016, Thursday, the premiere of “Zhaleika” (Germany) by the Bulgarian director Elitsa Petkova took place at the main International Competition of the festival. A few days later “Zhaleika” received the Grand Prix “Sofia – City of Film” for best feature at the 20th SIFF.
On the 15th of March 2018, Thursday, American director Sean Baker presented his film “The Florida Project” to the full house of Lumiere Lidl Cinema.
On the 14th of March 2019, Thursday, the premiere of “The Pig” by the director Drago Sholev took place. The film received three awards at the 23rd SIFF – a special prize by the jury at the International competition, the award for Best Bulgarian Feature Film and the FIPRESCI award.
MASTER CLASS ABEL FERRARA - part II
On the 19th of March 2018 at Cush Bar at Cinema House the second master class of the cult independent American director Abel Ferrara took place.
MUSICAL GREETING FROM SIFF
We present here three versions of the song "Vow" - from the film "Yesterday", performance at The Crickets' concert and performance by The Foundation band with The Sofia Philharmonic.
THE FESTIVAL TRAILER
