The committee appointed by the Bulgarian National Film Center to decide the country’s candidate for the Oscars included chairman Mira Staleva and members Savina Petkova, Julian Kostov, Pavel G. Vesnakov, and Kalin Kalinov.
Shot entirely in Bulgaria, this project developed by the German director in five years is set in a border town in southeastern Bulgaria, where a woman becomes involved in an illegal trade to help out a man with whom she shares a special bond.
The German/French/Bulgarian/Austrian coproduction won a Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, being acquired by The Match Factory ahead of its world premiere in Cannes’ 2026 Official Competition.
Germany’s Komplizen Film Production produced the film in coproduction with Kazak Productions, Miramar Films, Panama Films, Valeska Grisebach, New Matter Films, ARTE France Cinéma, and ZDF/ARTE, in collaboration with ARTE France.
The Dreamed Adventure was supported by Der Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Filmförderungsanstalt, Deutscher Filmförderfonds, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, Creative Europe - MEDIA, Aide aux cinémas du monde, Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée, Institut Français, the Bulgarian National Film Center, Österreichisches Filminstitut und ÖFI+, and Filmfonds Wien.
This is Grisebach’s first film since Western (2017), which was also shot in Bulgaria, produced by Komplizen Film Production, and coproduced by Chouchkov Brothers, Coop99, KNM, ZDF-Das Kleine Fernsehspiel, and ARTE.
