STEPHAN KOMANDAREV - chairman

KOMANDAREV has graduated in Film Directing from the New Bulgarian University in Sofia in 1999. As a director, producer and scriptwriter is an author of several award-winning documentaries and feature films including: The Judgment (2014), awarded with The Golden Rose Award and the Best Actor Award at the Bulgarian feature film Golden Rose Festival 2014, as well as eight more awards from Bulgarian and International festivals; The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner (2008) – the first Bulgarian film shortlisted for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars, it is the most world-wide released and screened Bulgarian film ever (93 countries), winner of 35 international festival awards; The Town of Bandate Women (documentary, 2009), Alphabet of Hope (ducumentary, 2003), Bread over the fence (documentary, 2002), Dog’s Home (1999). Currently he is working on two documentaries and the development of two projects for feature films. He is a member of the European Film Academy and teaches Film directing and producing at the New Bulgarian University.

ANTONIA KOVACHEVA

has graduated in Film studies from the National Academy and has worked in The Bulgarian National Film Archive since 1980. She was a Film Observer for several newspapers and magazines, such as: 24 Hours, Standard, Now, Capital light, Trud, Press. Author of numerous publications in Bulgarian and foreign periodicals. Member of the FIPRESCI and its juries at the international festivals in Krakow, Oberhausen, Leipzig, Troy, Cottbus, Rotterdam (president), Karlovy Vary and others. Chairman of the Guild Criticism of UBFM (2007- 2012). Prize Laureate of the UBFM operational criticism award in 2000-2002. Since November 2013 she is Director of the Bulgarian National Film Archive.

KIRAN KOLAROV

was born in Burgas in 1946. He graduated in Acting (1972) and Film Directing (1978) from VITIZ (NATFA at present). His graduation film Status: Orderly (which received the Golden Spike Award at the Valladolid International Film Festival in 1980) was his feature film debut. He has written and directed The Airman (1980), File # 205/1913 (1983), They Prevailed (1986), I Want Amerika (1990), A Spanish Fly (1998), L’s Revolt (2005) and If Somebody Loves You (2010).

KRASIMIR ANDONOV

has graduated in Film and TV cinematography and Applied Art Photography from the National Academy for Theatre and Film Art, where he teaches “Black and white photography“ since 2008. His pictures are published in the following magazines: Odisseus, GEO - Bulgaria, National Geographic Bulgaria, EVA. He worked as a cameraman on various short films, documentaries and TV film productions, as well as on the features: Rat poison (2011, directed by Konstantin Burov) and The Judgment (2014, directed by Stephan Komandarev).

YANINA KASHEVA

has graduated in Acting from VITIZ (NATFA at present) in 1978, in the class of Nadezhda Seykova. From 1978 till 1984 she acts on the stage of the Drama Theater Konstantin Velichkov in Pazardzhik and since 1984 she is part of the Satiric Theatre skat in Sofia. She has played numerous theatrical roles, including Juliet, Agafiya Tikhonovna, Hedda Gabler and others. She starred in movies such as: The pool and The Big Night bathing by Binka Zhelyazkova, Boris the Ist and Plyontek by Borislav Sharaliev. She wins Best Actress Award for her roles in All is Love and The Big Night bathing awarded at the 16th Golden Rose Festival. Since 2014 she is teaching as an Assistant of Acting complementing Professor Seykova at the Lyuben Groys Theatre College.

STANIMIR TRIFONOV - chairman

was born in 1958 in Veliko Tarnovo. He has graduated in Bulgarian Studies at the University of Tarnovo and in Film and TV Directing at NATFA (1986), in the classes of Dimiter Punev. Assoc. Professor in Film and TV Directing (2003) and Professor (2008), he teaches at the Southwest University - Bagoevgrad and the New Bulgarian University - Sofia. He is a producer and director of TV series, features and documentaries. Selected filmography: By God’s Will (1999), Image Impossible (1996), Elias Canetty. Interpretations (1992), Till Tomorrow… Four Portraits and a Memory (1988); he has received international and national awards, incl. GOLDEN CHEST and GOLDEN ROSE.

BORYANA MATEEVA

has graduated in Film studies from VITIZ (NATFA). From 1976 to 2015 she has worked in the Bulgarian National Film Archive as an editor and a programmer of Cinematheque Cinema. She has published hundreds of texts and participates in numbers of radio and television broadcasts for Bulgarian and foreign cinema. Since 1995 she teaches ”History of Bulgarian animation” and ”History of World Animation” at the New Bulgarian University in Sofia, and since 2006 - ”History of the Ibero-American cinema” at the National Academy of Theater and Film Arts. She was a member of the FIPRESCI juries in Annecy, Buenos Aires, Cannes, Leipzig, San Sebastian, Havana and a member of animation juries in Ankara and Wissembourg. In 2014 she presents the Panorama of the Bulgarian Animation at the International Festival in Mumbai. Winner of the UBFM’s prize for criticism for 1996-1997 and the Operational criticism Award of the Bulgarian Film Academy '12.

NIKOLAY TODOROV

was born in 1979 in Sofia. In 2006 he graduates in Film and TV Directing in the class of prof. Georgi Dulgerov at the NATFA. His graduation film The minutes after has participated in numerous international festivals and won a few prizes. He won The Jameson Award at Sofia Film Fest and the Festival Award in Cork, Ireland. Three days in Sarajevo was nominated for Best film by the Bulgarian Film Academy. Currently he is working on a new short film project.