The head of Bulgaria's biggest film festival has made Ukrainian films a focus and held to a boycott of Russian cinema.
. We stand in solidarity with Ukraine and the boycott of Russian films and official Russian delegates associated with the Russian regime and linked to the Russian government continues. Our position is anti-war, there is no room for any gray zones, none of us is happy that we have to make such decisions, but we have no choice,” he notes.
Speaking in the most important art house cinema in Bulgaria, the Dom na kinoto in the center of Sofia, which also serves as the headquarters for the Sofia festival, Kitanov notes how the local industry is still reeling from the damage wrought by the pandemic, and by the rise of streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+, which have decimated art house cinema admissions.
“During the pandemic, the festival and the distribution and exhibition of films suffered, attendance has remained lower than in pre-COVID years,” he notes. “The government helped with measures but couldn’t compensate all the losses. It hasn’t been easy to get back on the track when you have slowed down for almost three years, but we’re getting there.”
The 2023 Sofia festival, which wrapped its 27th edition on March 31, was a success, says Kitanov, with four times the attendance of last year “more interest from the media and many sold out screenings.” In total, 170 films from 53 countries screened with 300 international guests attending, while the 20th Sofia Meetings, the festival’s industry event and co-production market, welcomed more than 200 industry participants and presented 33 projects in five different sections.
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