Bulgarian Movie Wins Grand Prize for Best Narrative Feature at Heartland Film Festival

The Bulgarian movie “The Judgement” won the Grand Prize for Best Narrative Feature at the annual Heartland Film Festival, which took place in Indianapolis between October 16 and 25.

The film, which is directed by Stephan Komandarev, was awarded USD 45 000 at the 24^th edition of the festival.

“The Judgement ” is the Bulgarian entry in the foreign-language film category of the 2016 Academy Awards.

The 2014 drama tells a story about the smuggling of illegal Syrian refugees across the Bulgarian-Turkish-Greek border.

Recently, a cinema and TV entertainment website, identified the movie as “unexpectedly timely” as currently Europe is facing an unprecedented migrant crisis.

The films stars well-known Serbian actor Predrag (Miki) Manojlovic and famous Bulgarian actors Asen Blatechki, Paraskeva Djukelova, Vasil Vasilev - Zueka and Hristo Mutafchiev.

Manojlovic had previously appeared in Komandarev's “The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner”, which so far has been the only Bulgarian film to be shortlisted in the Foreign-language category of the Oscars.

Tim Irwin, Film Artistic Director of the festival, noted that the Grand Prize winners “tackle current, topical subjects in profound ways, and tell their important stories with masterful filmmaking”.

This year's edition of the festival awarded more than USD 120 000 in cash prices.

Since 1992, the festival has awarded more than USD 3 M to independent filmmakers – the largest total amount awarded by any US film festival.

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