SOFIA FILM FESTIVAL on the ROAD
The "Operation Cinema 2026" project is a continuation of the tradition, developed by the Art Fest team for more than 18 years. Our efforts are focused entirely on organizing film events in small and medium-sized cities in Bulgaria, some of which are regional centers. We have been working with number of cities for years and several events uphold the tradition in towns such as Veliko Tarnovo, Sevlievo, Ruse, Sliven, Gabrovo, Kyustendil; we have worked with others over the years, but the connection has been broken for various reasons, one of which was the pandemic situation in 2020-2021. Such cities are Smolyan, Yambol, Blagoevgrad, Pernik, Lovech, Pleven.
Some of these cities have functioning cinemas, but access to European and alternative arthouse films, presented at the Sofia Film Festival, is severely limited, not to mention also the dialogue between the authors and the audience of new Bulgarian films. Operation Cinema / Sofia Film Festival on the Road traditionally offers a program of high-quality films that are difficult to include in the regular repertoire of cinemas in Bulgaria, but when placed in the context of a film event (a small festival), the attention paid to these films increases significantly. Bulgarian films are most often presented by their authors.
This project has a past, present, and future. The audience's interest in the screenings 'on the road', which we started in 2008/2009 throughout the country, the consistency with which our team approaches its work in promoting and bringing festival cinema to the people in different Bulgarian regions, as well as the established partnerships with local municipalities, guarantee the sustainability of this idea.
The film programs in each city are based on the overall program of the Sofia Film Festival, which takes place annually in March. They include between 6 and 8 films, most of them European. We strive to ensure that at least 25% of the program consists of Bulgarian films in order to establish a dialogue between the authors and the audience.
Educational modules are an integral part of contemporary audience development, and we focus on building skills, learning the language of cinema, and introducing new technologies in the visual arts. The target groups are young people and children, given the major problem of integrating these groups. We present animation techniques that are suitable for children, as well as approaches to creating video content on social media such as YouTube.
As part of the educational modules, we also plan to show documentary films and hold follow-up discussions. Documentary films are rarely shown in regular distribution in our country. The themes of documentary films provoke and develop local communities by presenting new horizons in dealing with social problems and creating a sense of involvement in global processes.
The desire for cultural products, in particular film programmes, to reach towns and villages in Bulgaria has been an essential part of Art Fest's activities since its inception in 2001, but also of the project manager, with his experience as an organiser of film programmes, some of which have been touring Bulgarian cities since the early 1990s (Rock Film Fest '93 and '94, shared with Plovdiv, Burgas, and Varna after Sofia; a traveling festival of French cinema in 17 Bulgarian cities and British cinema in over 10 cities). Since 2009, the arrival of the SIFF travelling programme in Bulgarian cities has become a tradition, and its success is a guarantee of the potential of the "Operation Cinema" / "Sofia Film Fest on the Road" project.
