Sofia DocuMental

Sofia DocuMental is an international documentary film festival held annually in Sofia, Bulgaria. It is the country’s first festival dedicated exclusively to creative documentary cinema with a focus on human rights, social justice, and contemporary global issues. The festival is organized by the Balkan Documentary Center (BDC) and serves as a platform for public discourse and cultural exchange between Bulgarian and international audiences.

History and Mission

Sofia DocuMental was launched during the COVID-19 pandemic with the mission to promote critical storytelling and bring to the forefront important social themes through the power of documentary film. The festival curates a selection of internationally acclaimed films that aim to visually and emotionally capture the truth of our times. Its goal is to inspire dialogue and encourage active civic engagement around pressing global and local issues.

Best Female Director Award

For its inaugural edition, Sofia DocuMental introduced the Best Female Director Award, aimed at encouraging and recognizing the work of women filmmakers in the documentary field. This special award highlighted the festival’s commitment to gender equality and amplifying diverse voices in a traditionally male-dominated industry. Supported by the Bulgarian Fund for Women, the award celebrates films that not only demonstrate artistic excellence but also engage with pressing social issues through a distinctly female perspective. The introduction of this award set a precedent for subsequent editions, reinforcing the festival’s role as a platform for empowering women directors and promoting gender-balanced representation in documentary cinema.

Editions

Sofia DocuMental 2024 Edition

The 5th edition of Sofia DocuMental took place from September 28 to October 6, 2024, under the motto “Step out of the Bubble” It featured 30 Bulgarian premieres of award-winning international documentaries. Screenings were held at nine key locations across Sofia, and part of the program was also made available online through Neterra TV+, accessible throughout Bulgaria until the end of October.

Program and Themes

The 2024 festival program was divided into thematic sections, including

• Metamorphosis – Personal stories of transformation and resilience

• Sphere of Influence – Films exploring global political and social processes
• Democracy Under Fire – Documentaries addressing threats to democratic systems

There was a strong focus on female directors, with a special competition supported by Sofia Culture Program and the Bulgarian Fund for Women.

2024 Awards

Best Female Director Award

• I’m Not Everything I Want to Be - dir. Klára Tasovská

Special Jury Award

• Physics of Family Happiness - dir. Annika Mayer

Audience Award

• Johatsu – The Disappeared dir. Andreas Hartmann & Agata Mory

Sofia DocuMental 2023 Edition

The fourth edition of the Sofia DocuMental International Film Festival took place from 18 to 25 September 2023 in Sofia, Bulgaria. Continuing its commitment to gender equity in the film industry, the festival once again hosted a competition for Best Film Directed by a Woman, a tradition upheld since the inaugural edition in 2020. The award was presented by an international jury and supported by the Bulgarian Fund for Women, which sponsored the prize and participated in the closing ceremony held on 24 September beneath the domes of Largo Sofia’s pop-up cinema. The 2023 competition programme featured a curated selection of seven films directed by women:

• Smoke Sauna Sisterhood by Anna Hints (Estonia/France/Iceland, 2023)
• Queendom by Agniia Galdanova (USA/France, 2023)
• Queen of the Deuce by Valerie Kontakos (Greece, 2022)
• Look What You Made Me Do by Coco Schrijber (Netherlands, 2022)
• La Singla by Paloma Zapata (Spain/Germany, 2023)
• Seven Winters in Tehran by Steffi Niederzoll (Germany/France, 2023)

In addition to the filmmakers in competition, Sofia DocuMental 2023 welcomed a number of international guests, including Hanna Badziaka, co-director of the Belarusian opening film Motherland; Serbian debut director Pavle Terzic with Irreversible Time Fairytale; and Romanian directors Daniel and Alexandra Liz Bernuti, who presented the closing film My Muslim Husband, a co-production with HBO Max. Other notable participants included Matyas Kalman (Paying a Visit to Fortuna), Vlad Petri (Between Revolutions), and Marek Pongo, human rights activist and protagonist of Pongo Calling.

Awards

Best Female Director Award

• Smoke Sauna Sisterhood – Director: Anna Hints (Estonia/France/Iceland)

Special Jury Mention

• Seven Winters in Tehran – Director: Steffi Niederzoll (Germany/France)

Audience Award

• Queen of the Deuce – Director: Valerie Kontakos (Greece/Canada)

Balkan Documentary Market – Industry Awards (2023)

Best Project Award (granted by the State Cultural Institute to the Minister of Foreign Affairs)

• Where I End and You Begin by David Power

Special LightDox Award

• I've Never Been on an Airplane by Redon Kikai

Most Improved Pitch Award

• Berba - Director: Nikolay Urumov

Sofia DocuMental 2022 Edition

The third edition of the Sofia DocuMental International Film Festival was held in September 2022, against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The festival responded to the war by presenting a dedicated program of films that explored the conflict in Ukraine, the occupation of its territories, and broader geopolitical tensions in the region.

Among the featured films were:

• Mariupolis 2 (2022) by Mantas Kvedaravičius and Hanna Bilobrova (Lithuania/France/Germany)
• Inner Wars (2020) by Masha Kondakova (Ukraine)
• Terykony (2022) by Taras Tomenko (Ukraine)

The festival also hosted a panel discussion titled "Russia’s Nuclear Terrorism", focusing on the threats posed by military actions near nuclear power facilities. The panel featured Ksenya Shymanska of the International Human Rights Festival Docudays UA and Olexi Pasyuk, deputy director of the Ukrainian environmental organization Ecoaction.

The international jury for the 2022 edition included Vanja Jambrović (Croatia), Veton Nurkollari (Kosovo), and Ksenya Shymanska (Ukraine).

Awards (2022)

Best Film

• The Gods Must Be Mistaken – Directed by Jakob Krese; produced by Marina Gumzi and Jakob Krese (Slovenia/Germany)

Best Director Award

• How to Save a Dead Friend – Directed by Marusya Syroechkovskaya (Sweden/Norway/France/Germany)

Special Jury Award

• Beauty of the Beast – Directed by Anna Nemes (Hungary)

Sofia DocuMental 2021 Edition

The second edition of the Sofia DocuMental International Documentary Film Festival, held in September 2021, was notable for being the first in-person (live) edition of the festival, following its digital debut in 2020. It also marked the launch of the festival’s first official competition program, dedicated to recognizing and encouraging young women directors in the field of documentary cinema.

International Jury

The awards were decided by a three-member international jury, composed of:

• Velislava Popova – Editor-in-chief of Dnevnik.bg (Bulgaria), known for her advocacy for independent journalism and support for cultural initiatives.
• Wolfgang Knöpfler – Austrian producer affiliated with Terra Mater Factual Studios, with credits including The Ivory Game and Sea of Shadows.
• Tanya Haurylchyk – Belarusian cinematographer whose work has been featured at Berlinale, IDFA, and Hot Docs.

Awards

Best Female Director Award

• Winner: Reconciliation – Marija Zidar (Slovenia)

The award, presented by the Bulgarian Fund for Women, included a glass statuette and a BGN 3,000 cash prize. Executive director Nadezhda Dermendzhieva emphasized the need to amplify women’s perspectives in the visual arts.

Sofia DocuMental 2020 Edition

The inaugural edition of the Sofia DocuMental International Documentary Film Festival took place online from 10 to 18 December 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Branded as a “zero edition,” it marked the launch of Bulgaria’s first international documentary film festival focused on human rights, with a strong emphasis on cultivating a young, engaged audience.

Organized by the Balkan Documentary Center, the festival aimed to use documentary cinema as a platform for raising awareness and fostering open debate on some of the most urgent societal challenges. At the heart of the 2020 edition was the theme of freedom of speech, reflecting the turbulent political and social context in Bulgaria and beyond at the time.

The program featured a special curated selection of 15 films, shown for the first time in Bulgaria via the festival's online platform. Each screening was followed by Q&A sessions with filmmakers and discussions with special guests, encouraging audience engagement on issues presented in the films.

Despite the constraints of the pandemic, Sofia DocuMental 2020 successfully established a new civic and cultural platform for public discourse and critical reflection through documentary cinema. The edition set the tone for future iterations of the festival, positioning it as a regional leader in human rights storytelling and civic engagement through film.