The second edition of Burgas International Film Festival (BIFF) is over now. During the festival week viewers had the chance to see over 30 feature, short and documentary films from the Black Sea countries, including Greece.
Among the highlights of the festival were the sit-downs, organised for the audience with the casts and directors of the movies. Some of the locations where the BIFF was held were visited by Todor Matsanov and Dimitar Nikolov (Bulgaria) – director and leading actor respectively in Hristo; Alexey Fursenko (Russia) – director of Outcast; Catrinel Danaiata (Romania) – director of Double; Pavel Cuzuioc (Moldova) – director of Secondo me; Yannis Sakaridis (Greece) – director of Amerika Square; Ilker Savaskurt (Turkey) – director of Groom’s Block as well as by Tonislav Hristov, director of the documentary The Good Postman and his characters in the movie Ivan and Ivan.
Key to making the festival really memorable were also the honourable members of the jury - André Marques (Portugal), Patric Chiha (Austria), Andrea De Sica (Italy), Todor Dimitrov, Anna Goranova and Georgi Stoev - Jacky (Bulgaria).
Selecting the winners proved to be a challenge and sparked some fascinating debates among the jury. Nonetheless, an agreement was reached and the movies which were finally distinguished are as follows:
• HRISTO (Bulgaria) directed by Grigor Lefterov and Todor Matsanov won the Best Feature Film Award
• ORANGE (Turjey) directed by Ersin Dogan won the Best Short Film Award
• THE GOOD POSTMAN (Bulgaria) directed by Tonislav Hristov won the Best Documentary Film Award.
Special recognition was also given to the feature films ROCK, directed by Ivan Shahnazarov (Russia) and AMERIKA SQUARE, directed by Yannis Sakaridis (Greece ) as well as to the documentary THE EYE OF THE MINOTAUR, directed by Borislav Kolev (Bulgaria).
The Audience Award was given to AMERIKA SQUARE (Greece).
This year’s festival was organised with the support of Municipality of Burgas, Municpality of Ruen, National Culture Fund, the embassies of the Republic of Austria, the Republic of Greece and Portugal, Italian Cultural Institute, Jameson, Teddy Kam, Yalta Youth Cooperation, St. Anastasia Hotel, Villa Byzantium, Dives Estate, Business Incubator, Vijmag! Burgas, Municipal Radio Burgas, Flagman, Formalno, ChernomorieBG, SeaGuide, Indie Car Taxi and A La Minute Catering.
We’d also like to thank our main film curator Slavi Georgiev, hard-working volunteers, photographers, graphic designers, the technical team and all friends of Burgas International Film Festival .
