On September 15 2022, the head of the Romanian film fund (hereafter referred to by its Romanian acronym, CNC), Ms Anca Mitran, gave an interview in which she positions the CNC in conflict with Romanian filmmakers, rather than as a supporter and ally of local film productions.

Festival Regulations

1. Sofia International Film Festival (Sofia IFF) is the biggest competitive film festival in Bulgaria, accredited by FIAPF. The festival is presenting the best of the world contemporary cinema, including works of masters, discoveries and retrospectives.

The 27th Sofia IFF will be held from 16th to 26th of March 2023 (main programme) with an additional programme until the beginning of April.

2. The programme of the 27th Sofia IFF includes the following sections:
- International Competition for First or Second Feature Films
- Balkan Competition
- International Documentary Competition
- Bulgarian Short Films Competition
- Cinema Today – Masters
- Kaleidoscope
- Special Screenings
- New Bulgarian Cinema
- Documentary Programme – out of competition
- VR Screenings (by invitations only)
- Tributes and Retrospectives
- Cinema Gourmet
- Cinema and Fashion
- SFF Nature
- SFF Teen
- SFF for Kids
- SFF for Blind People
- Special Events

3. Film Submissions are accepted for the following sections:

* Competitive programme:
   - International Competition – first or second feature fiction films of the directors, produced after January 1st 2022, worldwide.
   - Balkan Competition – regional feature fiction films from Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey), produced after January 1st 2022.
   - International Documentary Competition – feature documentaries over 60’, worldwide, produced after January 1st 2022.
   - Bulgarian Short Films Competition – Bulgarian short films produced after January 1st 2022 with length no longer than 30 minutes.
* Non-competitive programme:
   - Feature fiction films and documentaries from all over the world produced after January 1st 2022.

4. Deadline for submissions
Deadline for foreign entries:

Early Bird – October 15th, 2022
Regular – November 15th, 2022
Deadline for Bulgarian features: December 1st, 2022
Deadline for Bulgarian short films: December 1st, 2022

The films are selected by programme board, advisors and selection committees.
Selection committee will choose twelve shorts competing for Best Bulgarian Short Film Award. Selection committee will choose the films competing in the Documentary Competition.
The selection committees are chosen by the festival management.

The final programme will be announced at the end of January 2023.

5. Online submission form is available on the festival’s Eventival visitors page.

6. Links and passwords to online screeners to be sent with the Film Submission form. The submitters can also send the links and password via email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

7. NB! The festival requests submission fee as follows:

Early bird – 25 EUR for submission of a foreign feature film until October 15th.
Regular – 35 EUR for submission of a foreign feature film from October 15th until November 15th.

The film will be considered for the festival selection only after the submission fee is duly paid. The submission fee is not refundable once it has been paid.

8. Film Formats
    • For selection purposes: secured online screener (valid at least three months after the submission deadline).
    • Accepted screening formats for the selected films: DCP; Blu-ray and HD file on exceptional occasions.
    • Screeners of the selected films for translation should be sent to the festival until January 15th, 2023 The screening formats should reach the Festival before February 1st, 2023.

9. Sofia IFF will cover all costs connected with the transportation of prints of the films selected for the Competitive sections to Sofia and back to the address given by the producer in case the film does not have outbound destination. Sofia IFF will cover inbound shipment of the prints of films shared with other festivals. Sofia IFF will cover all the expenses connected with the storage and insurance of the films during the Festival.

10. Sofia IFF invites representative of the films in the International Competition and Balkan Competition. All conditions for the festival guests are included in their personal invitations. If conditions do not allow presence of guests in Sofia, SIFF will organize online introductions & Q&As with the talents.

11. The festival does not pay screening fees for the films in the competitive sections.

12. Festival Juries and Awards

International Jury of five members will decide upon 12 films in the International Competition and 12 films in the Bulgarian Short Film Award Competition and will award the following prizes:
- Sofia City of Film Grand Prix for Best Film in the International Competition (goes to the director and producer of the film);
- Special Jury Award for film in the International Competition (goes to the director of the film);
- Award for Best Director (goes to the director of the film);
- Best Bulgarian Short Film Award (goes to the director of the film);

Balkan Jury of three members will decide the Award for Best Balkan Film (goes to the director of the film);

International Documentary Jury of three members will decide the Award for Best Documentary Film;

Best Bulgarian Film Jury of three members of representatives of international film festivals will decide the Award for Best Bulgarian Feature Film;

FIPRESCI will appoint a jury of 3 members to decide the award for a film, selected from a special list of films published in the festival catalogue and on the festival website (goes to the director of the film);

The Audience will vote for its preferable film from the International and Balkan Competition;

Young Jury will present an award to a film from the International Competition.

13. Accreditation requests will be open from February 1st, 2023 until March 10th, 2023.

14. Participation in the Sofia IFF shall presume observation of all articles of the present Regulations. The festival director has the right to settle all cases and issues not covered by these Regulations.

15. For additional information please check the festival website www.siff.bg  or contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The Training Days Poland is a tailor-made 2-day programme especially designed for emerging producers, who are looking to expand their network and learn more about the international context of the audiovisual industry. The workshop welcomes producers working in fiction, animation and documentary, and strives to make the industry inclusive and diverse.For this workshop a total of 12 producers (6 Polish and 6 from neighbouring Central and Eastern European countries) will be selected to join the workshop taking place in Warsaw*. As ACE aims to encourage international collaboration, the call is open to emerging producers from Poland, as well as Albania, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia, Montenegro, North-Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine.Training Days Poland, set up in collaboration with Independent Film Foundation and with to the support of the Polish Film Institute, will be themed around “The Essentials of International Co-Production, Sales and Distribution”. The interactive workshop will include plenary sessions, case studies, as well as group meetings provided with the help of ACE consultants and producers who have notably strong track-records in international financing, co-production, sales and distribution, and who will share their knowledge and international expertise.The Training Days Poland is connected to the ACE 32 Financing Strategies Workshop (21 – 26 Nov, Warsaw), which is a workshop within the ACE Annual Programme organised for the selected 18 experienced independent producers from Europe and beyond, and attended by a large group of international experts.

Strengthening independent producers, ACE Producers uses the power of the ACE Network’s collective knowledge to tackle the challenges and seize the opportunities in an everchanging industry. ACE Producers enables profound collaborations through honest dialogue in the safe trusted space of the ACE Network and fosters valuable exchange of high-level knowledge about the independent audio-visual industry in Europe and beyond. ACE Producers provides top quality executive education in European creative producing and entrepreneurialism.Independent Film Foundation from Warsaw, Poland promotes creativity and the production of films of high artistic value, and creates opportunities for artistic and professional development of filmmakers, i.e. organising the activities of the Polish Film Academy and running the European master scriptwriting programme ScripTeast.The Polish Film Institute has been the main public funding body, supporting development of Polish film productions since 2005. It has also created a variety of incentives and financing schemes geared towards supporting international co-productions.

WORKSHOP DATES
23 – 24 November 2022
(the workshop starts at 09:30 in the morning, therefore international participants should arrive on 22 Nov and depart 24 Nov after 6pm).

LOCATION
Warsaw, Poland*

ELIGIBILITY CONDITIONS

• Emerging producers with an interest in the international market and co-production (this workshop will not focus on line-production);
• Producers should have at least one credit on a short film
• Producers will best benefit from the workshop when already working on a  feature-length project in development
• Producers would need to be committed to attend the entire workshop
• Producers who were selected for the 2021 TD Poland are eligible to re-apply, as well as producers who were not selected in 2021
• All necessary sanitary rules against COVID-19 will be maintained

PARTICIPATION DETAILS

• One-page motivational letter
• Company profile
• Producer’s biography & filmography
• List of current projects in development (with information and status on each project)

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Contact: Joanna Ząbek at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.*

ACE will be paying close attention to the ever-changing international situation and will make any adaptations to the workshop necessary to ensure the safety of participants and guests.

First Cut Lab RE-ACT is a comprehensive consultancy & training program designed for 4 feature films in editing phase from Croatia, Friuli Venezia Giulia region, Serbia and Slovenia. Films can be fiction or documentary. First Cut Lab RE-ACT offers a 4-month trajectory, with activities ranging from editing consultancy to the acquisitions of skills in marketing, promotion, and audience engagement.

Czech Film Springboard, the showcase of Czech feature film projects in development organized by the Czech Film Fund / Czech Film Center, will be held at Finále Plzeň film festival between September 23–25, 2022.

Creators from All European Countries Welcome to Apply!

connecting cottbus, the East-West co-production market at the FilmFestival Cottbus, presents this year’s selection of projects in development and works in progress.

On 15 September 2022, the Croatian Audiovisual Centre decided to support six minority coproductions (five feature films and one long documentary).

The Industry Department of the San Sebastian Festival has been organising its Focus On since 2014. Under the initiative, a group of professionals from a country, region or territory comes to the San Sebastian Festival to expand its contact network and participate in the Industry activities.

This year, thanks to the collaboration with the Film Center Serbia (www.fcs.rs), six Serbian producers  (namely:  Marija Stojanović, Nikolina Vučetić, Miloš Ivanović, Filip Marttinović, Miroslav Mogorović, Marko Jocić) will have the opportunity to meet partners for their projects in San Sebastian and to increase their co-production opportunities with other European and Latin American regions and countries.

El camino del sur, by Juan Batista Stagnora, was the first co-production between Serbia and Argentina in 1988. Almost 35 years down the line, the Film Center Serbia will present its programmes of tax incentives and production grants to potential partners in Latin America with a view to relaunching these co-productions. In this respect, the institution will give an award coming with 3,000 euros to one of the projects presented at the Forum.  

In 2016, Serbia introduced a series of incentives for audiovisual production thanks to which fiction, non-fiction, animation, television and commercial productions shot in Serbia have the option to receive rebates of up to 25% of their grant-eligible expenditure (20% in some cases). In addition, when the expenditure is greater than €5M, the incentives increase to 30% of the grant-eligible expenditure.

The presence of Serbian co-productions has been a constant at the latest editions of the San Sebastian Festival: this year, the Croatia-Serbia co-production Garbura / Carbide, by Josip Žuvan, will compete in New Directors; in 2020 Sutemose / In the Dusk, by Sharunas Bartas participated in the Official Selection; as did Soldatii. Poveste din Ferentari / Soldiers, Story from Ferentari, by Ivana Mladenovic in 2017, amongst others. Furthermore, in 2004 the Serbian director Goran Paskaljevic won the Special Jury Prize with San zimske noci / Midwinter Night’s Dream.

The initiative was launched in 2014 with the Focus on Canada, thanks to the collaboration with Telefilm Canada, a territory with which the Focus on was repeated in 2015 in view of its success. In 2016, in collaboration with the film institutes of Denmark, Iceland and Norway, the initiative celebrated the Focus on Nordic Glocal, dedicated in 2018 to the Baltic countries; in 2019, thanks to collaboration of the Polish Film Institute, the Focus on Poland; and, in 2021, the Focus on Georgia, with the collaboration of the Georgian National Film Center.