Fifteen features (three more than at last year's edition) are about to start vying for the Golden Rose Trophy in competition at the 40th Golden Rose Film Festival. Another five recent features will be shown in the non-competitive Open Horizons sidebar together with eight shorts, while 16 other shorts will be locking horns for the Best Bulgarian Short Film Award. The anniversary edition of the gathering will be taking place from 23-29 September at its usual location, in the seaside town of Varna.

The programme includes minority co-productions as well, such as the opening film, How I Learned to Fly by Serbian director Radiovjoe Andric, backed on the Bulgarian side by production companies Doli Media Studio and Art Fest. The latter is run by Sofia Film Festival founder Stefan Kitanov, who also co-produced Darkling [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Dušan Milić
scheda film] through his other company, RFF International, set to be screened in the competition programme. The Windseeker and As Far As I Can Walk [+leggi anche:
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Two films among the competition titles are angled at children, and they are both debut features: Bulgarian Ship Sinks in a Stormy Sea by Gergana Zmiicharova and Petrinel Gochev, a well-known duo from the world of theatre, and The Tesla Case by Andrey Hadjivasilev. Three more debuts will duke it out in the main competition: Borimir Ilkov-Bono’s Anna [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], Petya Yossifova’s Giri and Orlin Milchev’s The Art of Falling [+leggi anche:
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scheda film]. The latter two are also coming-of-age stories, just like popular actor Valeri Yordanov’s second directorial effort, Shakespeare Like a Street Dog [+leggi anche:
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After last year’s main award went to a popular genre film, one could say there is a heightened presence of audience-orientated titles in the competition programme this year. Niki Iliev presents Reunion 2, the second part of his local box-office hit Reunion [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], which is this year’s Bulgarian Oscar hopeful; and veteran helmer Ivan Pavlov’s Spring Equinox, based on a script by renowned late filmmaker Krasimir Krumov-Grec.

The jury is chaired by Bulgarian film historian, producer and distributor Alexander Donev, and also features Croatian film scholar Ana Grgić, Bulgarian scriptwriter and art researcher Ilko Ganev, as well as filmmakers Blerta Basholi (Kosovo) and Maya Vitkova-Kosev (Bulgaria).

Besides the extensive press conferences, which will often turn into in-depth discussions, two other talks are planned: one on women in Bulgarian cinema and a conversation about film in the digital age, where representatives of streaming platforms in Bulgaria will be in attendance.