International Film Festival to Begin in Bulgaria's Varna

The 20th edition of the International Film Festival "Love is Folly" will be held in Bulgaria's Varna from August 31 to September 6. Photo by zar.bg

The 20th edition of the International Film Festival "Love is Folly" begins Friday in the Bulgarian Black Sea city of Varna.

The opening ceremony includes a red carpet walk of top Bulgarian movie stars in front of the Festival and Congress Center in the city. Russian actress, Natalya Bondarchuk, is a special guest of the event, while screen writer, Angel Wagenstein, who will turn 90 in October, will receive the special award of the organizers for overall contribution.

The program includes 71 movies from 19 countries, the most in the entire fest's history.

The opening night will feature the debut of the Bulgarian film "I Am You," directed by Petar Popzlatev. The closing ceremony includes a showing of the low-budget 3-time Oscar-Nominated "Albert Nobbs," where Glenn Close is appearing in a male role.

The fest's artistic director, Alexander Grozev, is quoted saying that there will be several panoramas of leading directors such as Andrey Tarkovski and Andrey Konchalovski, and a panorama of movies that have received awards in the last couple of years.

In addition to "I Am You," the Bulgarian participation includes the movie "Sunny."

Other Bulgarian films, shown at the fest, feature great Bulgarian actors who recently passed away such as Kosta Tsonev, Georgi Cherkelov, Ivan Andonov, and Velko Kanev, along with several Wagenstein movies.

12 movies from Germany, Poland, Hungary, Turkey, Greece, Russian and the Ukraine, among others, will compete for the Grand Prix of the fest.

The event closes on September 6.

Tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies are sold for BGN 10, for all other showings – for BGN 5. There will be several free showings as well.

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