EVENTS

The panel discussion will take place in Garden Room 1 of Columbia University’s Faculty House

SPECIAL GUESTS FROM BULGARIA

MR. SHEVKET CHAPADJIEV - Honourable guest

ALEXANDER DONEV - Director of Bulgarian National Film Center

SEVDA SHISHMANOVA - Head of Film Production Department at Bulgarian National TV

LYUDMILA DIMITROVA - Director of the State Cultural Institute to the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

VELISLAVA POPOVA - Editor in chief of Dnevnik newspaper

SLAVA DOYCHEVA - Actress, Crayfish

YAVOR GARDEV - Theater and film director, Zift

IGLIKA TRIFONOVA - Film director, Relatives

NERI TERZIEVA - Journalist and scriptwriter, Relatives (together with Iglika Trifonova)

GALINA TONEVA & KIRIL KIRILOV - Producers, Gala Film ltd., Relatives

KAMEN KALEV - Film director. His first feature Eastern Plays has been the first Bulgarian film selected for Cannes Film Festival since 1990.

SVETOSLAV OVCHAROV - Scriptwriter and director, A Farewell to Hemingway

MARTICHKA BOJILOVA - Film producer, AGITPROP production company, Corridor #8 and 15

BORIS MISSIRKOV & GEORGI BOGDANOV - Cinematographers and founders of AGITPROP production company. Cinematographers of Corridor #8.

DIMITAR GOCHEV - Film and TV producer, Kamera Ltd., Saint George Kills the Dragon and The Belgrade Phantom.

OPENING NIGHT GALA

The opening night of the NY-Bulgarian Film Festival will be held on December 8th (7 PM) with a screening of the film Zift. Director, Yavor Gardev, will be a special guests of the festival. And available for Q&A after the screening. An opening night reception at Volvo Hall of the Scandinavia House will follow the screening.

AN EVENING WITH Mr. SHEVKET CHAPADJIEV AND HIS FAMILY

"Screening of the biographical Relatives and book signing of Chicago, Chapadjiev” by Orlin Krumov.

December 11th at 9 PM.

Guests from Bulgaria will be the director of the film Iglika Trifonova, the producers Galina Toneva and Kiril Kirilov (GALA Film), the scriptwriter Neri Terzieva, Mr. Chapadjiev and his family.

INTERNATIONAL DISCUSSION:
“THE FILM OF SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE - SPECIFICS AND PERSPECTIVES. EU-US CULTURAL DIALOGUE IN THE SCOPE OF THE EUROPEAN POLICY FOR TRANS-ATLANTIC CULTURAL BRIDGE”

In the context of the EU development policy and the EU-USA cultural dialogue we would like our discussion to focus on the following aspects:

• The role of the culture as an instrument of the foreign diplomacy – a study of the Institute for Culture to the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria, delivered by Mrs. Liudmila Dimitrova, Director of the Institute.
• The challenges and the solutions in building a trans-Atlantic cultural bridge – this to be discussed with our colleagues from the cultural representations in New York from Turkey, Greece, Romania, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. They will who share their point of view and experience at this field. All the representatives will share their vision of what had been achieved so far and on the practical ways for co-operation in the future.
• A representative of the Delegation of the European Commission will comment and discuss the EU cultural program for the years 2007 – 2013 and the potential of the program to assist in the further development of the trans-Atlantic cultural dialogue.
• Perspectives of the South-Eastern European film distribution at the US cultural and commercial market. The aspects of the specific marketing and promotion will be discussed. Analysis of the currant situation and what should be the future strategy will be discussed by a speaker form the IFC distribution company, that had recently distributed the Bulgarian film Zift in the USA, and Yavor Gardev - director of Zift.
• Assisting the realization of "difficult" ideas that offer a critical view and analysis of key issues on the Balkans by means of institutional and co-production support" – speaker Martichka Bojilova – Producer, AGITPROP Production Company.