“Blaga’s Lessons" and "Dyad" Share Grand Prize at 41st Golden Rose Film Festival

Matey Todorov

Yana Titova at the Golden Rose Festival, BTA Photo

Varna, on the Black Sea,

29.09.2023 06:42

(BTA)

Stephan Komandarev's Blaga’s Lessons and Yana Titova's Dyad shared the grand prize for a feature film at the 41st edition of the Bulgarian feature film festival "Golden Rose". The prizes were awarded Thursday night at the Varna Festival and Congress Centre.

The jury pointed out that both films are phenomenal, engaged and exciting and enter into dialogue with each other. Upon receiving the award, Yana Titova thanked her team and said that this was an easy production to make. Stephan Komandarev stressed that he worked with friends and associates who are amazing professionals.

The Special Jury Award for Feature Films goes to director Georgi Dyulgerov for his enormous contribution to Bulgarian cinema culture, support for young artists and making sense of Bulgarian history. His latest film Memoir of a Betrayal was presented at the festival.

The Golden Rose award for direction went to Yana Titova for her ability to create dynamic and multi-layered scenes and to get the most out of the actors, some of them non-professionals, in Dyad. This is her second feature film. From the stage in Varna, she thanked the jury for legitimising her choice to be a director as well as an actress.

The festival singled out cinematographer Vesselin Hristov for his work in Blaga’s Lessons. The same film also took the screenplay award. It was written by Simeon Ventsislavov and Stephan Komandarev.

Ivan Barnev received the male actor award for his performance in the Bulgarian-Spanish co-production Vasil, as well as for his roles in Scent of Linden, Blaga’s Lessons and Dyad.

The award for feature debut went to Tonislav Hristov for his film The Good Driver for his humanism and respect for the common man, as well as for his skill in working with actors. In the film, the main roles are played by Malin Krastev and Gerasim Georgiev, but there are also extras. The prize was presented by BTA Director General Kiril Valchev, who wished the artist a lot of news yet to be written about him.

The feature film jury also awarded two special achievement diplomas. One was for actor Gerasim Georgiev for his outstanding off-screen role in Blaga’s Lessons and for his supporting role in The Good Driver. The other one is for Sabina Hristova, who is the set designer of Theodore Ushev's film Phi 1.618.

The short film award at the 41st edition of the Golden Rose is for Stefan Ganov's film Silent in the Snow, which is a Bulgarian-German co-production. The Diploma for Special Achievement in this category was awarded to the film August 13th by Ventsislav Sariev.

The festival's youth jury awarded The Good Driver by Tonislav Hristov.

The Audience Award went to Blaga’s Lessons. The Critics' Guild awarded the short film Lyubima by Maya Vitkova-Kosev and Dyad by Yana Titova. The Union of Bulgarian Filmmakers gave their recognition to Blaga’s Lessons. The Varna Award went to the young actress in Dyad, Margarita Stoykova. For the first time at the Golden Rose Festival there was also a competition for a TV series and the winner in the category was Autumn of the Demon.

/MT/