04-12-2013

Bulgaria’s Odeon Expands Activities with New Releases

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    SOFIA: The newly renovated and digitalised Odeon cinema, which since 1972 has primarily screened archive films, showed its first commercially distributed film, Woody Allen’s 2013 Blue Jasmine.

    The 156 seat Odeon had six screenings of the film between 29 November and 1 December 2013 attracting 141 viewers at ticket prices of 8 and 6 BGN (4 and 3 EUR respectively). During the same week-end, the distributor of the film A+Plus Cinema had 2,440 admissions and box office of 20,821 BGN (10,641 EUR).

    “For the moment this is only a modest beginning, but we believe that the interest of the audience at the only state owned cinema will gradually grow,” Odeon’s new director Vladimir Trifonov told FNE. He added that the traditional archive program will be regularly enriched. Through the end of 2013, in parallel with premieres, Odeon will screen Dustin Hoffman’s Quartet and Danis Tanovic’s An Episode in The Life Of An Iron Picker.

    Longtime employee of the Bulgarian National Archive and Head of Odeon programming for the last fifteen years, film critic Boriana Mateeva said that one of the best located cinemas in Sofia opens to new, commercially distributed films, but “only on the condition they possess cultural value. American independents and artistic films mainly from Europe will be preferred.” She added, “The Odeon cinema is the only place in Bulgaria where one can see a new film by an established director accompanied by some of his older works. Along with Blue Jasmin Odeon is now screening seven of Allen’s previous films.”