site.btaBulgarian Director Stephan Komandarev Receives 2023 Darko Bratina Award at Tribute to a Vision Festival in Bratislava

Bulgarian director and screenwriter Stephan Komandarev received the 2023 Darko Bratina award at the Tribute to a Vision (Poklon Viziji) Festival in Bratislava. The 24th edition of the festival was held between October 16 and 22. The Bulgarian artist was awarded for "his in-depth film opus of documentaries and feature films, which in the past three decades has marked not only Bulgarian but also European cinema with the recognizable narrative of a critical thinker of modernity", as pointed out in the jury's decision, quoted by the Bulgarian Embassy in Slovenia.

Stephan Komandarev received the award named after Darko Bratina (former senator in the Italian Parliament and MEP) at a ceremony in the Slovenian National Theatre in the town of Nova Gorica on October 19.

During his one-week visit, the director held a master class for young filmmakers.

The programme of the cross-border festival offered audiences in Ljubljana, Maribor, Trieste, Spetses and other cities screenings of seven of Stephan Komandarev's most popular films, including The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner, Directions, Rounds, Judgement, The Town of Badante Women,  Alphabet of Hope. 

On October 19 and 20, Nova Gorica and Ljubljana hosted the premiere of Blaga’s Lessons, the grand prize laureate of this year's Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

The embassy also said that Blaga’s Lessons has been selected in the Panorama section of the 34th LIFFe International Film Festival in Ljubljana next month.