JURIES
Viktor Bozhinov
Director ( The President Of The Jury)
Viktor Bojinov was born on 23 January 1972. In Sofia. He graduated in Film and TV Directing at the NATFA “Krustyo Sarafov”. During his studies, a few of his coursework projects were selected for some of the most prestigious international short film festivals (Munich, Oberhausen, Tampere, Clermont Ferrand, Drama, Montecatini).
He has worked as an assistant director in a number of international productions with some of the most prestigious directors of world cinema (Regis Varnier, Volker Schlöndorff, Uli Edel, Michael Apted, Taviani Brothers and Timur Bekmambetov).
Between the period of 2007-2009 he worked as a second unit director in Russia. The projects in which he participated were produced by major Hollywood companies – Sony Pictures, Warner and Fox. In 2013 he was the director and creative producer of the Russian adaptation of the American TV series “Bones”.
Since 2009, he has been actively involved in the creation of the new wave of successful Bulgarian TV series. He has directed and consulted on the production of most episodes of Glass Home (Stuklen Dom), Stolichani v poveche, Kantora Mitrani, Liaisons (Vruzki), The Road of Honor (Putyat na Chestta), and Otdel Izdirvane. He actively participated in the creation of the most successful Bulgarian TV series “Undercover” (Pod Prikritie), produced by BNT.
In 2022, he was the director and creative producer of the 12-episode series for BNT “The Grapes of Guilt”.
In the period 2015 – 2017, he worked on his first ever feature film “Heights” (Vazvishenie) based on the novel by Milen Ruskov. The film won a number of awards at Sofia Film Fest 2018, Golden Rose 2018, See Film Festival 2019.
In 2021, the comedy drama “The Naked Truth About the Zhiguli Band” (Golata istina za grupa Zhiguli) was released on the big screens, and despite the Covid pandemic, it became the most watched film title in the country. The film won the Special Jury Award at the Golden Rose 2021 and Best Foreign Film at the Rome 2021 Film Festival.
His latest feature film Escape (Byagstvo) has been selected in Cotbus IFF, Bulgarian Film Academy Awards, Golden Rose and Sofia IFF.
Viktor Bozhinov is the president of FILMAUTOR Bulgaria.
Milica Tomovic
Director
Milica Tomovic was born in 1986. SFR Yugoslavia. Graduated from Academy of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade 2011.With the omnibus film “October”, which she made together with her classmates. The film was shown in Cottbus, Trieste, Sofia Film Meetings, Isola Cinema and others. In 2016. her short film “Transition” had it’s international film premiere in Locarno (Pardi di domani), followed immediately by a premiere in Toronto (Short Cuts). “Transition” won: golden plaque in Serbian short fiction film selection in Belgrade Film Festival, Heart of Sarajevo best short film in Sarajevo Film Festival, International Short Film Festival of Cyprus and others. She directed five episodes of the successful TV series in 2018 in Serbia “Morning Changes Everything”. In 2021. her debut feature film “Celts” had a world premiere at Berlinale Festival (Panorama) and continued a good festival life(Heart of Sarajevo for Best Director – Sarajevo FF 2021 Jury Prize; Taiwan Film Critics Association Award; Audience Choice Award – Taipei IFF 2021; Standard Readers’ Jury Prize – Viennale 2021, Best Feature Film; Best Screenplay; Best Production Design; Burgas IFF 2021, Best Film, Ensemble Cast – Image et Nation Montreal GLFF 2021 and others).The same year directed three episodes of TV mini-series “Block 27” that had its broadcasting beginning of the 2022, immediately taking attention as the first teenage horror series done in Serbia and being sold to one of the leading independent Film & Television distributors Beta Film. Currently working on her new script for feature film called “Big Women”.
Attila Hartung
Director
Bulut Reyhanoglu
Producer (The President of the Short Films)
Bulut was born in Istanbul in 1962. After graduating from business administration, he worked in the textile export industry before pursuing his true passion: filmmaking. He started his film career as producer of the award winning film, Zenne Dancer (2011). He went on to produce another award winning film, Drawers. His dark-comedy period film, The Announcement premiered at the Venice Film Festival and won the Best Mediterranean Film award. In 2021, he produced Weasel, which is currently on Netflix. In 2022, he produced Tell Me About Your Darkness and the art documentary, Crossroads. He is the founder of the online short film platform, shortbyshort.com. In 2019, he collaborated with the Producer’s Academy of Turkey to start Producers and Directors Meetings to support short movie productions.
Nikolay Urumov
Producer and Director
in 2001 he graduates from the Technical University of Sofia with a degree in “Transport Engineering” and “Technology and Sound Studio Technology and Production, and in 2021 he graduated from NATFA “Krastyo Sarafov” with a degree in “Film and Television Directing”.Nikolay Urumov is the producer of the film dedicated to the miracle in Bulgarian poetry Petya Dubarova – „Petya of my Petya”. The film had its premiere in cinemas on 21.01.2022 and has already gathered over 80 000 viewers at home and abroad.In the period between 2012 and 2015, he is the executive producer of the series “Domashen arest” и “Kantora Mitrani”, as well as the Bulgarian-Russian co-production “Labyrinths of Love” and the 3rd season of the show “Bulgaria’s Got Talent”. He is also a co-producer in the film “Villa Roza”.Additionally, he is the lead singer of the rock band “Epizod, with which he recorded the album “Respect” in 1999. A year earlier he won third place at „Golden Orpheus“, and first place from „Hit -1“.For many years he has been a field sound engineer for Bulgarian and foreign films, TV series, and commercials.
Petr Grudov
Choreographer & Director
Born in Burgas, Petr spent the first 10 years of his professional career in public communications before discovering dance. He began his training as a contemporary dancer with Derida Dance Company in 2016 going on to perform onstage and on camera in pieces by Bulgarian and international choreographers. He presented his first work as a choreographer 1 Body 3 Movements (2019) after a two week residency under the mentorship of Madalina Dan in Bucharest and in 2021 he performed in the dance film Glance From The Edge (2021). The short film X (2022) is his debut as screenwriter and director, created in collaboration with visual artist Zlatimir Arakliev. In 2023 he published the book Megafauna with photographer Yana Lozeva. A lifelong writer, he is a co-founder of art, culture and design journal Boyscout (2010) and club ΔOΛV (2015).