The Awards Ceremony took place on the 16th of March 2019 in Hall 1 of the National Palace of Culture. Sofia International Film Festival is a part of the Calendar of Cultural Events of the Sofia Municipality for 2019.
THE INTERNATIONAL JURY FOR FIRST AND SECOND FEATURE FILMS
Nik Powell (UK) – Producer, Jury President
Stas Namin (Russia) – Producer, musician, composer, artist, photographer and director
Hazar Ergüçlü (Turkey) – Actress
Ewa Podgórska (Poland) – Director
Ilian Metev (Bulgaria) – Director
DECIDED
SOFIA CITY OF FILM GRAND PRIX AWARD for best film in the International Competition for first and second films, amounted to 7 000 Euro provided by the Sofia Municipality, went to ‘MONSTERS’ (Romania) by director Marius Olteanu and producers Claudiu Mitcu, Carla Fotea and Marius Olteanu.
SPECIAL JURY AWARD went to ‘THE PIG’ (Bulgaria) by director Dragomir Sholev, started as a Sofia Meetings project.
AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTOR went to Nora Fingscheidt for her film ‘System Crasher’ (Germany).
JAMESON AWARD FOR BEST BULGARIAN SHORT FILM, amounted to 6 000 Euro, went to ‘ROSES IN THE NIGHT’ (Bulgaria) by director Pencho Kunchev.
JAMESON Special Mention AWARD was awarded to the short film ‘GOTCHA!’ (Bulgaria) by director Stefani Doytchinova.
The AUDIENCE AWARD was decided by the spectators’ vote for films from International and Balkan competitions and was presented by the legendary Polish director Agnieszka Holland to the film ‘A PICTURE WITH YUKI’ (Bulgaria), directed by Lachezar Avramov.
DOMAINE BOYAR AWARD FOR BEST BALKAN FILM handed by Balkan jury president Mahmut Fazıl Coşkun (director, Turkey) and members Renate Roginas (film expert and curator, Germany) and Victor Bojinov (director, Bulgaria), went to ‘HER JOB’ (Greece-France-Serbia) by director Nicos Labôt, started as a Sofia Meetings project.
The Balkan Jury handed SPECIAL MENTION to the film ‘THE LOAD’ (Serbia-France-Croatia-Iran-Qatar) by Ognjen Glavonic.
AWARD FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY handed by the international jury president Liam Saint-Pierre (director, UK) and members Tsvetan Dragnev (director, Bulgaria) and Deyan Parouchev (director, France-Bulgaria), went to the film ‘THE MAGIC LIFE OF V’ (Finland-Denmark-Bulgaria) by Tonislav Hristov.
The Documentary Jury handed SPECIAL MENTION to the film ‘OF FATHERS AND SONS’ (Germany-USA-Syria-Lebanon-Netherlands-Qatar) by Talal Derki.
The FIPRESCI Jury members Joseph Proimakis (Greece), Jose Luis Losa Garcia (Spain), Katerina Lambrinova (Bulgaria) handed out the FIPRESCI Award to the film ‘THE PIG’ (Bulgaria) by director Dragomir Sholev.
THE AWARD OF THE BULGARIAN GUILD OF FILM CRITICS for film from the Balkan Competition went to ‘BUTTERFLIES’ (Turkey) by Tolga Karaçelik, started as a Sofia Meetings project.
THE YOUNG JURY AWARD of the festival for a film in the International Competition went to ‘TEHRAN: CITY OF LOVE’ (Iran-UK-Netherlands) by director Ali Jaberansari.
THE AWARD FOR BEST BULGARIAN FEATURE FILM handed by jury consisted of Andrei Tanasescu (Toronto Film Festival’s programmer, Romania), Lenka Tyrpakova (Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic), Anke Donnerstag (Cottbus, Germany) and Barbara Lorey de Lacharrière (France) went to ‘THE PIG’ (Bulgaria) by director Dragomir Sholev.
Within the framework of the 23rd Sofia International Film Festival the SOFIA AWARD of Sofia Municipality for contribution to the art of film was presented to:
KRZYSZTOF ZANUSSI, director (Poland)
BILLE AUGUST, director (Denmark)
KIRIL MARICHKOV, musician and composer (Bulgaria)
