SOFIA: Bulgaria’s independent online portal NoBlink! Media, focusing on short films, is enjoying a growing interest among audiences. It has released over 40 fiction, documentary and animated short films since its launch on 25 April 2016.

SOFIA: Bulgarian writer/director Kiran Kolarov will start the shooting of his twelfth feature film Melodrama on 6 August 2016.

SOFIA: Bulgarian actress Maria Veselinova will start shooting her debut feature Smart Christmas on 26 July 2016. The film is a fantastic fairy tale dedicated to the young audience.

SOFIA: Bulgarian director/producer Ivaylo Penchev is in postproduction with Holiday Makers, a seaside comedy intended for a wide audience.

SOFIA: Beloved Bulgarian film and theatre actress Ani Bakalova passed away on 3 July 2016 at the age of 76. 

SOFIA: The Macedonian Film Agency decided to support Compatibility, the new low budget film by writer/director Stephan Komandarev, with 55,400 EUR (3 400 000 MKD). This is the second minority coproduction support for the project following a grant from the German Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM) in May 2016.

SOFIA: The Bulgarian National Film Center decided to support Brighton 4th, the third feature film by acclaimed Georgian director Levan Koguashvili, which will be a Georgian/Russian/Bulgarian/French coproduction.

SOFIA: Ivailo Hristov’s ironical black and white film Losers (produced by Pro Film) won six awards including film of the year, topping the list of fourteen feature films from 2015 that competed in the Bulgarian Film Academy annual awards.

SOFIA: Atanas Hristoskov’s low-budget second feature film Eighteen is in postproduction.

SOFIA: The Bulgarian National Film Center allotted approximately 1.8 m EUR / 3.5 m BGN in its first session in 2016, on 2 June. Only four feature films received funding: two of them with higher budgets, one with a smaller budget and one debut.