From the beginning to the 1970s
Just as in a large part of Europe, the seventh art appeared in Bulgaria at the beginning of the 20th century, under the initiative of the Lumière brothers who organized a first cinematographic projection in the city of Roussé. In 1915, Vasil Gendov directed The Bulgarian is a Gallant Man(Bulgaran e galant) and signed what can be considered the first Bulgarian success. Like Gendov, Boris Grejov became a true pioneer of Bulgarian cinema with works such as After the Fire in Russia and Tombs without Stones. Until the mid-1930s, Bulgarian cinema seemed to consist mainly of literary adaptations, performed by actors with a theater background. From the beginning of the 1940s until the end of the 1960s, cinema in Bulgaria (as in the rest of Europe) experienced, not surprisingly, a dark and hollow period. At first it fell into the hands of the fascists, only to be handed over to the communists at the end of the Second World War. The Bulgarian seventh art became a propaganda tool where ideological works were favored. The 1970s, however, symbolize a small renaissance of Bulgarian cinema, with, for example, The Goat's Horn (1971) by Methodi Andonov, one of the first Bulgarian international successes. From this period, we also remember The Last Summer (1974) by Christo Christov as well as The Shoe of the Unknown Soldier (1979) by Rangel Valchanov.
From the fall of communism to the present day
Despite this seventies revival, Bulgarian cinema struggles to make itself known, and if the dismantling of the Soviet Union brings independent film, the film industry of the country is in need of funding. However, some works managed to cross the borders and brought Bulgaria a certain international recognition, such as Ivan and Alexandra (1988) and Towards a New World (1999) by Ivan Nitchev, but also Friends of Emilia (1995) by Ludmil Todorov. The beginning of the 2000's is probably the most prosperous era of Bulgarian seventh art: Iglika Trifonova directs Letter to America, Zornitza Sophia wins the Special Jury Prize at the Sarajevo Film Festival in 2004 for Mila from Mars, and Radoslav Spasov's Stolen Eyes is pre-selected for the Oscars in 2006. In 2008, a Bulgarian talent emerges: Stephan Komandarev offers us the road movie The World is Big, shortlisted for the Oscars. In 2014, Komandarev directed The Judgment, the same year Bulgarian filmmakers Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov presented their film The Lesson at the Toronto Film Festival, in the "Contemporary World Cinema" section. In 2016, the two directors were in competition at the Locarno Film Festival with their work Glory, neck and neck with Ralitza Petrova and her work Godless, which eventually won the Golden Leopard. More recently, Komandarev returns with the first part of a social trilogy, Taxi Sofia (2017), presented at the Cannes Film Festival in the "Un certain regard" section. The second opus will be released in 2019 under the name Rounds, while waiting for the last part, which we hope will be as hard-hitting as the first two.
Finally, animation cinema is also represented and engaged. At the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 2006, Andrev Tsevtov won the Unicef prize for his short film Cherno na byalo(Black on White), a protest against a society that rejects differences.
