27/04/2005

The Bulgarian National Film Center (NFC) has just become the 24th member of the European Film Promotion, a European network which gathers film promotion and export agencies. The 23d member to enter the EFP was the Slovenian Film Fund which joined in in January 2005.
For the NFC, entering this network ensures better support for independant Bulgarian films. In 2007, the country will officially be a member of the European Union, but it has been associated to the MEDIA Programme since an agreement was signed in 2002. As far as the NFC is concerned, it has represented Bulgaria at the Eurimages Management Board since 1993 ; in 2004, it turned into an Executive Agency and took new responsabilities regarding the development of national film production. The effects did not take long to show : in this country where an average of 3/4 features a year have been produced for 15 years, 14 projects were launched since the beginning of the year.

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For that matter, 2005 is the official year of Bulgarian Cinema. Many Bulgarian films have been granted awards lately at the biggest film festivals, as, for instance, the documentary Georgi and the Butterflies by Andrey Paounov, Whose is this Song? by Adela Peeva (still on a world tour), Mila from Mars by young Sophia Zornitsa, who got a total of 10 distinctions at several international festivals.
‘There has obviously been an awakening,’ says Alexander Grozev, Delegate Executive at the Bulgarian Film Centre, ‘yet, it is necessary to go further in terms of promoting and distributing our films, at home and abroad. The first step is joining in a European film promotion association so as to get in touch with other European institutions and raise our small country to an international level’.

(Translated from Italian)