24/02/2022 - Ten other documentary and animated films received awards and special mentions at this year’s gathering, which was exceptionally held in Sofia

Director Svilen Dimitrov receiving the Best Animation Award for Shell in Love (© Ralitza Nikolova)

After being postponed owing to the health-and-safety restrictions in Bulgaria, the 26th Golden Rhyton Festival of Bulgarian Documentary and Animated Film, which had been scheduled for the first week of December in Plovdiv, has just wrapped exceptionally in Sofia (after unspooling from 17-23 February).

The jury, headed up by established documentary filmmaker Adela Peeva, who worked on the final decisions together with film critic and academic Irina Ivanova and animator Yavor Kalachev, picked The Adventurer by Anna Petkova as Best Documentary, for “the depth and sensitivity with which the film comprehends the place and role of the individual revolt against the status quo in conditions of different political conjuncture”, and Shell in Love by Svilen Dimitrov as Best Animation Film, for “its original, eclectic form and its skilful mastery of various means of expression”.

Petkova’s work (which unfortunately happened to be her last, owing to her recent, untimely death) features the forgotten dissident Grigor Bozhilov, one of the founders of the Bulgarian Independent Society for the Protection of Human Rights, whose life path gives an insight into the processes kept hidden from the public eye. Dimitrov’s Shell in Love, meanwhile, tells of a timid snail who, after a traumatic experience, lives in his fantastical inner universe. But falling in love helps him rediscover the beauty of the real world.

Here is the full list of award winners:

Best Documentary Feature
The Adventurer – Anna Petkova

Jury Honourable Mention
Silent Legacy – Petya Nakova

Best Director
Stephan Komandarev – Life from Life

Best Debut Feature
Fire-Born – Sasha Hadjieva

Special Mentions
А Gladiator - Nikolay Vasilev
A Poet in the Labyrinth of Time – Kostadin Bonev

Bulgarian National Film Archive Award
An Occupation or a Liberation – Svetoslav Ovcharov

Bulgarian Film Critics’ Guild Award
An Occupation or a Liberation – Svetoslav Ovcharov
A Poet in the Labyrinth of Time – Kostadin Bonev

Academica 21 Award
The Adventurer – Anna Petkova

Animation awards

Best Animated Film
Shell in Love – Svilen Dimitrov

Jury Honourable Mention
Anry in the Sky - Mira Arnaudova

Cartoon Designer Award
Nely Gasharova – Seven Deadly Sins

Best Debut
Winter Evenings – Gergana Simeonova

Special Mention
The Love We Cannot Live Without – Gospodin Nedelchev-Dido