The Award Ceremony of Sofia International Film Festival took place on the 19th of March in Hall 1 of the National Palace of Culture. The festival presented a total of 210 films from 58 countries from all over the world. 269 international guests came to Sofia in 2016, amongst them were directors, producers, festival directors as well as media and film experts.

Sofia City of Film Grand Prix Award for best film in the International Competition for first and second films, amounted to 7,000 Euro provided by the Sofia Municipality, went to Zhaleika (Germany) by director Eliza Petkova. The International Jury for first and second feature films consisted of Dito Tsintsadze (Georgia) – Jury President, Harutyun Khachatryan (Armenia), Klaus Eder (Germany), Kristina Grozeva (Bulgaria) and Petar Valchanov (Bulgaria).

Lidl Audience Award was decided by the spectators’ vote! Bulgarian audience voted for films from the special selection of the Sofia Film Festival’s programme – and the winner is My Father, My Mother, My Sister (Bulgaria), directed by Dimitar Kotsev-Shosho.

Special Jury Award went to The Summer of Frozen Fountains (Georgia-Russia) by director Vano Burduli. 

Award for Best Director went to Tomas Weinreb and Petr Kazda for their film I, Olga Hepnarova (Czech Republic-Poland-Slovakia). 

Special Mention went to Angela Nedyalkova for her role in the film The Paradise Suite (The Netherlands-Sweden-Bulgaria).

Jameson Award for Best Bulgarian Short Film, amounted to 6,000 Euro, went to Red Light (Bulgaria) by director Toma Vasharov. 

Award for Best Documentary handed by the international jury president Trisha Ziff (director, Mexico) and members Simone Bauman (producer, Germany) and Milena Kaneva (director, Bulgaria), went to the film Mr.Gaga (Israel-Sweden-Germany-The Netherlands) by Tomer Heymann. 

The Documentary Jury handed two Special Mentions to the film Cambridge (Bulgaria) by Eldora Traykova and to the film The Ground We Won (New Zealand) by the director Cristopher Pryor. 

Domaine Boyar Award for Best Balkan Film handed by Balkan jury president prof. Bojidar Manov (film critic, Bulgaria) and members Isabelle Stever (director, Germany) and Simon Perry (film expert, Great Britain), went to Frenzy (Turkey-France-Qatar) by director Emin Alper.

The Balkan Jury handed Special Mention to the film Nausea (Turkey) by Zeki Demirkubuz. 

The Award of the Bulgarian Guild of Film Critics for film from the Balkan Competition went to Losers (Bulgaria) by Ivaylo Hristov. 

The Award for Best Bulgarian Feature Film handed by jury consisted of Kiril Razlogov (Russia, programming director of Moscow International Film Festival), Elma Tataragic (Bosnia and Herzegovina, programmer of Sarajevo Film Festival) and Roberto Cueto (San Sebastian Film Festival) went to Thirst (Bulgaria) by director Svetla Tsotsorkova.

The FIPRESCI Jury members Gideon Kouts (France), Esin Kucukteperinar (Turkey), Penka Monova (Bulgaria) handed out the FIPRESCI Award to the film Rauf (Turkey) by directors Soner Caner and Baris Kaya.

The Young Jury Award of the festival went to The Lure (Poland) by Agnieszka Smoczyńska as the best film in the International Competition.

 

Within the framework of the 20th Sofia International Film Festival the Sofia Award of Sofia Municipality for contribution to world cinema was presented to:

Terry Gilliam, director (United Kingdom)

Bela Tarr, director (Hungary)

Ted Kotcheff, director (USA-Canada) 

Georgi Stoev-Jackie, Georgi Petkov-Johnny and Christo Iliev-Charlie (Bulgaria)

At the 13 edition of Sofia Meetings the following awards were handed out: 

Nu Boyana Film Studios presents for the first time Sofia Meetings Grand Prix for Best Project in the main sections. Тhe largest film production studio in Eastern Europe will back up one of the projects with a prize of 50,000 Euro in services and a cheque for 5,000 Euro. The award goes to the project Daisi (Georgia), presented by the director Dea Kulumbegashvili and the producers Rati Oneli and Jim Stark.

Focusfox Studio (Hungary) Award equal to 10 000 Euro in post production services goes to the project The Fugue (Poland), presented by the director Agnieszka Smoczyńska and the producer Agnieszka Kurzydło.

Hungarian Filmlab Award equal to 10 000 Euro in post production services goes to the project Sister (Bulgaria), presented by the director and producer Svetla Tsotsorkova, the producer Nadejda Koseva and the writer Svetoslav Ovcharov.  

EastWest Filmdistribution Award – script consultancy with Steven Goldsmith, an Irish-American script doctor and writer (equal of 5,000 Euro) goes to the project Raging Sea (Bulgaria) by the director and producer Zlatin Radev.

Young Producer Award – Yapimlab (Turkey) will invite one producer for one week project consultancy in Istanbul and presentation to Turkish producers (equal of 5 000 Euro). The award goes to the project Closed to the Public (Croatia), presented by the director and writer Vanja Sviličić and the producer Rea Rajcic.