The 29th Sofia International Film Festival handed out its awards on Saturday evening. The event took place in the capital’s National Palace of Culture, where Croatian director Rajko Grlic was presented with a special prize for his contributions to the art of film. The international jury, composed of directors Patricia Mazuy (jury chair), Pia Marais, Veit Helmer, Andrey M Paounov and actress Jaana Saarinen, handed the most prestigious Sofia City of Film Award to Honeymoon [+leggi anche:
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The Special Jury Award went to Cat’s Cry [+leggi anche:
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The festival’s Balkan jury, composed of director Roman Bondarchuk, Bulgarian critic Petia Alexandrova and producer Oliver Neumann, plumped for Teodora Ana Mihai’s Traffic [+leggi anche:
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In the International Documentary Competition, the big winner was Dear Beautiful Beloved [+leggi anche:
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A jury of festival programmers – Mihai Chililov (programmer, Transilvania IFF), Dimitris Kerkinos (programmer, Thessaloniki IFF) and Bernd Buder (artistic director of the FilmFestival Cottbus) – crowned Pavel G Vesnakov’s film Windless [+leggi anche:
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A total of 171 films from 58 countries were screened at the 29th Sofia International Film Festival. Repeat screenings of some titles will be available to Sofia audiences until the end of the month, and an online platform will make movies available nationwide until April. The full list of award winners is as follows:

Sofia City of Film Award
Honeymoon [+leggi anche:
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Special Jury Award
Cat’s Cry [+leggi anche:
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Best Director
Koya Kamura - Winter in Sokcho [+leggi anche:
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Special Mention
Bella Kim - Winter in Sokcho

Best Bulgarian Short Film
Nicole - Elena Toncheva (Bulgaria)

Best Balkan Film
Traffic [+leggi anche:
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Special Mention
Triumph [+leggi anche:
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Best Documentary
Dear Beautiful Beloved [+leggi anche:
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Special Mention
Silent Observers [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Eliza Petkova
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Best Bulgarian Feature Film
Windless [+leggi anche:
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FIPRESCI Award
Windless - Pavel G Vesnakov

Award of the Bulgarian Guild of Film Critics
Triumph - Kristina Grozeva, Petar Valchanov

Audience Award
Flesh - Dimitar Stoyanovich (Bulgaria)

Young Jury Award
Honeymoon - Zhanna Ozirna

Youth Audience Award
The Story of Frank and Nina [+leggi anche:
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Sofia Award for Contribution to the Art of Film
Iossif Sarchadzhiev, director and actor (Bulgaria)
Rajko Grlic, director (Croatia)

Special Award of Sofia International Film Festival
Kosta Bikov, director (Bulgaria)
Bohdan Sláma, director (Czech Republic)
Szabolcs Hajdu, director (Hungary)