For the 13th time JAMESON will give an award of € 6 000 in SOFIA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL’s competition for short films - Jameson Short Film Award
The number of films applied for 2016 JAMESON Short Film Award competition are 95. And here are the selectors who have taken upon themselves the important task of watching ALL the registered films and present the 12 BEST AMONG THEM before the festival’s prestigious international jury.
Ivaylo Hristov is among Bulgaria’s best loved theatre and film actors but he’s also a director and teaches at the "Krastyo Sarafov" National Academy of Theatre and Film Art. He was born on 10 December 1955 in Sofia. He graduated NATFA in 1980 in prof, Sasho Stoyanov’s acting class. He was appointed to work in the Sliven Theatre till 1985 and after 1986 in the Bulgarian Army Theatre. He’s also played and worked as a director at Theatre 199. Thetre-goers remember his roles in Mr. Puntila and his Man Matti, Waiting for Godot, Sex, Drugs and Rock-and-roll, The Cherry Orchard, The Wedding and many more. As a director he staged Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Sex, Drugs and Rock-and-roll, Killer Scisors, Underground Secrets and Rock-and-roll Night. Along with teaching at NATFA where he has been prof. Stefan Danailov’s assistant since 1992, he staged The Threepenny Opera and Barrel of Gunpowder.
Prof. Dr. Ivaylo Hristov is also one of the founders of the ASKEER theatrical awards. The first feature film he directed was Emigranti (2002) in cooperation with Lyudmil Todorov, he is the director and script writer of My Friends Call Me Old Chap (2006), Footsteps in the Sand (2010) and his newest 2015 film Losers won the prestigious Golden St. George grand prize at the Moscow Film Festival as well as the best film and best actress awards at the Golden Rose 2015 Bulgarian film festival.
Actress Margita Gosheva is well known to Bulgarian audiences through her work in theatre as well as her leading role in one of the most awarded Bulgarian films in recent years – The Lesson by directors Kristina Grozeva, Petar Valchanov. Margita graduated from Krastyo Sarafov National Academy of Theatre and Film Art in prof. Nadezhda Seykova and Veselin Rankov’s class. The actress played her first role in a film in 1996 in BG, a project by Georgi Djulgerov and Svetoslav Ovtcharov, then starred in Emigranti (2002) by Ivaylo Hristov and Lyudmil Todorov, The Investigation (2007) by Iglika Triffonova, Three Days In Sarajevo (2014) by Nikolay Todorov, Where is Magi? (2012) – a TV series etc. In 16 years on stage Margarita Gosheva has played 23 roles in 9 different theatre companies and thanks to The Lesson she’s reached audiences in countries around the world and won the Best Actress awards at the Angers Festival (January 2015) and the Vilnius Festival (April 2015).
Producer and director Iliyan Djevelekov was born on 10th 1966 in Plovdiv. He studied psychology at Sofia University and graduated film and television directing at NATFA in acad. Lyudmil Staykov’s class. While studying he worked as director for the student show Ku-Ku. In 2001 Ilian Djevelekov, Matey Konstantinov and Georgi Dimitrov established the Miramar Film production company. Today it is among the leading producers of documentary and feature films and television advertisements in Bulgaria. Javor Gurdev’s hit film Zift (2008) was Ilian Djevelekov’s feature debut as a producer and LOVE.NET his first as a director. The film attracted 200 000 viewers and is in the top 10 of box-office successes in Bulgaria in the last 20 years. The film was sold in the US and many European countries.
Anita Dimitrova is a journalist with over 20 years of experience in culture and a special attitude towards cinema. She was born on 22 March 1976 in Veliko Tarnovo and studied Public Relations at St. Kliment Ohridski Sofia University’s Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication but chose a career in journalism rather than PR and advertising. Between 1994 and 1997 she was a reporter for 24 Hours and then went on to work for the Sega daily since its establishment in 1997 till today. Through the years she’s written on cinema (and sometimes other topics) in magazines such as Club Z, Women Today, A Week in Sofia, Playboy, AmCham Bulgaria Magazine, and websites like SofiaLive and OperationKino. From 2002 to 2008 she was also a script writer for the weekly entertainment show Elit on BNT.
Antonia Milcheva is last year’s winner of the Jameson award with her film Ginka. Antonia was born in 1984 in Vidin. She graduated directing in prof. Djulgerov’s class at NBU in 2013. She wrote the script, directed and edited Ginka (2014), Linda (2012), Third Encounters of the New Kind (2011), Rozhden Den (2010). She worked as an assistant to prof. Georgi Djulgerov and as an editor for his film Buffer Zone.
In February the 12 nominees for the big award will be announced and the 20th anniversary Sofia Film Festival’s international jury will choose the winner.
Sixteen years after its establishment the JAMESON Award is still serious motivation for Bulgaria’s film directors. Jameson Irish Whiskey and the European Association of Film Festivals’ joint initiative Jameson Short Film Award was initially awarded at 18 festivals in various locations around the world and began in Bulgaria in 2003.