26/02/2026 - The major film gathering rolls out its anniversary edition celebrating Bulgarian and international auteurs

It’s a very special anniversary year for the Sofia International Film Festival. In 2026, the biggest international film gathering in Bulgaria celebrates its 30th edition, running from 12–31 March. The opening film will be Jafar Panahi’s Palme d’Or-winning It Was Just an Accident [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jafar Panahi
film profile] and Panahi will receive the festival's annual prize, the FIPRESCI Platinum award. During the festival dates, and online shortly afterwards, audiences will have the chance to see a total of 145 feature films across fiction, documentary and animation. Sofia Meetings, the prestigious co-production market, will run from 18-22 March during the SIFF days.

For the 24th time in its 30-year history, the festival’s international jury will determine the Grand Prize in the competition for a debut or second narrative film, "Sofia - City of Film", sponsored by the Sofia Municipality. This year, the jury is chaired by Hungarian director György Pálfi and will judge 12 films, all first or second features. Of the competing titles, five are Bulgarian co-productions: two come straight from the Berlinale, Ralitza Petrova's Lust [+see also:
film review
interview: Ralitza Petrova
film profile] (Bulgaria/Denmark/Sweden) and Geneviève Dulude-De Celles’s Nina Roza [+see also:
film review
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interview: Geneviève Dulude-de Celles
film profile] (Canada/Italy/Bulgaria/Belgium), respectively premiered in Forum and in competition, joined by Amerissa Basta’s Life In a Beat (Greece/Cyprus/Bulgaria/North Macedonia/Montenegro/France), Gözde Kural’s Cinema Jazireh [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gözde Kural
film profile] (Turkey/Iran/Bulgaria/Romania), and Alexander Kosev’s Women Out of Order (Bulgaria). The other titles in competition are Kai Stänicke’s Berlinale Perspectives entry Trial of Hein [+see also:
film review
interview: Kai Stänicke
film profile] (Germany), Myrsini Aristidou’s Sundance Audience Award winner Hold Onto Me [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Myrsini Aristidou
film profile] (Cyprus/Denmark/Greece), Ondřej Provazník’s Karlovy Vary-awarded Broken Voices [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ondřej Provazník
film profile] (Czech Republic/Slovakia), Cecilia Ștefănescu’s Black Nights entry A Safe Place [+see also:
film review
film profile] (Romania), and Toronto selections Nomad Shadow (USA/Spain/France) by Eimi Imanishi and The Condor Daughter (Bolivia/Peru/Uruguay) by Álvaro Olmos Torrico, as well as Melik Kuru’s Dump of Untitled Pieces (Turkey).

In addition to the International Competition, the festival welcomes its usual Balkan Competition, Documentary Competition, Teen Competition and Bulgarian Short Film Competition, where all films will be judged by respective international juries, including the FIPRESCI Jury.

The festival will partner with the British Council, Institute Français, The Czech Cultural Institute and the Polish Cultural Institute to bring in guests, host masterclasses, and show revered cinema of masters new and old. Among the special guests of the anniversary edition are Scottish filmmaker David McKenzie who will present his latest film, the crime-heist thriller Fuze (United Kingdom), French auteur Arnaud Desplechin with his latest film, co-written by Bulgaria’s Kamen Velkovsky, Two Pianos [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Arnaud Desplechin
film profile] (France), and French documentary filmmaker Nora Philippe. McKenzie, Desplechin, and jury president Pálfi will all receive the Special award of the Sofia International Film Festival.

The festival celebrates outstanding contributions to the art of cinema as customary with its Sofia Award from the Sofia Municipality, given to multiple recipients, including Bulgarian actor and director Ivaylo Hristov and cinematographer Emil Hristov who are also frequent collaborators. There will be a special gala dedicated to Polish actor Jan Englert, who will be presenting the latest film he stars in, Dominika Montean-Pańków’s The Crossroads (Poland).