LONDON — Local director Dragomir Sholev’s “Podslon” (Shelter) took the grand prix at Bulgaria’s 15th Sofia Film Festival, which closed Monday with a gala screening of Russian director Alexei Uchitel’s “The Edge.”
Sholev shares the €5,000 ($6,990) prize, awarded in a ceremony Saturday night, with his producer Rossitsa Valkanova. Sholev also picked up a Kodak prize for best Bulgarian feature that comes with $2,797 of film negative and lab services.
Joao Nuno Pinto won best director for “America,” a Spanish/Brazilian/Portugese/Russian co-production.
A special jury award went to Turkish director Selim Gunes for “White as Snow.”
Festival screened 205 films, including 118 features, 24 documentaries and more than 60 shorts during its 10-day run.
At the 8th edition of industry sidebar Sofia Meetings, Hungarian project “Indian Wife,” presented by director Robert Lakatos and producer Andras Mihi, won $4,197 donated by Nu Boyana Film for best pitch in the second film projects program and $6,995 in post-production services from Digimage and LVT Sofia Post Production in the best project category.
Israeli project “Youth,” directed by Tom Shoval and produced by Gal Greenspan, picked up $6,995 in post-production services donated by Synchro Film, Video and Audio (Vienna) for best pitch in the Plus Minus One Program and $2,798 in services from LVT Sofia Post Production for best project.
