A unique festival in Bulgaria, Meetings of Young European cinema will unite young Europeans for the first time around cinematographic and professional events, including film screenings, master classes and workshops, as well as image education workshops.

Bulgaria is a territory rarely included in European cultural policies. It is seen as one of the small countries from the EU that faces the "giants" of the cultural industries such as France, Germany and The United Kingdom.

However, Bulgarian cinema has experienced a re-birth these last few years, its renaissance stays fragile. As a result of the collapse of the communist regime, a whole generation of filmmakers was sacrificed. The appearance of directors such as Andrey Paounov (George and the butterflies - 2004), Kamen Kalev (Eastern plays - 2009), or moreover Pavel Vesnakov, who recently won an award at the International Festival of Short Movies in Clermont-Ferrand (Grand prix for Pride - 2014), proves that the new generation is promising.

Supporting this emergence and strengthening the presence of cinema in Bulgaria requires a very important action regarding the audience: giving them the opportunity to discover new movies, to meet new filmmakers; to help the youngest to participate in this process through image and cinema education. Finally, knowing what has been created in different environments and how film funding functions in other European countries is very necessary in helping young filmmakers begin their first steps.

This festival is made up of three parts:

● a program of films open to all kind of audience

● an educational line for professionals

● an educational line Education of the visual image for the high school students

The program of screenings contains three different parts dedicated to young generation’s creation:

● The emergence of a new French cinema

А selection of feature length movies directed by the new generation of filmmakers recognised by "les Cahiers du cinéma" in April of 2013, discovered on the Cannes festival and who has already shot at least one medium-length movies: Serge Bozon (La France), Justine Triet (la Bataille de Solférino), Guillaume Brac (Tonnerre), Hélier Cisterne (Vandal), etc.

● A carte blanche of the Brive festival: medium-length movies, a highlight of the first steps

The collection of the medium-length European movies in Brive - the only festival dedicated to this movie format in Europe –will present a selection of medium-length movies of young European and French filmmakers

● Оpen doors to the FEMIS: a look on one of the biggest cinema schools on an international level

A selection of movies representing the youngest generation, a diversity of approaches.

A master class open to all audiences, especially intended for young Bulgarian professionals, will reflect on the situation of cinematic project funding in European, combining the expertise and the point of view of different participants who are specialists in this domain, mainly producers specialised in the European co-production. A case study of a first co-produced film by several European countries will allow an illustration of the analysis.

A workshop dedicated to the exercise of pitch during which European professionals, young filmmakers and Bulgarian and foreign producers will try to present different film projects. The aim: to be able to synthesise one’s script, to put forth the potential of the project in order to generate the interest and the involvement of financial partners. To have a good command of one’s pitch is an essential tool in today’s world to differentiate oneself in the economic market.

A workshop on image education will take place in one or two classes in French high schools in Sofia. The students will discover the functions of different films presented at the festival, and will meet filmmakers and producers. The workshop will be lead by one professional from the film industry who graduated from the FEMIS, and a critic of Bulgarian cinema and her students from NATFA (the National Film Academy in Sofia). The general purpose of this workshop is to raise awareness in young audiences of visual image and to let them analyse and write their own "cinematic experience". From spectators to actors, the students will be invited to make a blog on which to publish their work written in French and Bulgarian.

Days of the Bulgarian cinema in Paris

Because such an important event in Bulgaria as the Meetings of Young European cinema must be relayed to France, our festival will be exported to Paris for two days, in a form dedicated to the young Bulgarian filmmakers. In November 2014, at the Ciné-club in the University Paris 8, in the FEMIS, and also in an emblematic Parisian cinema, a program of films made by young Bulgarian filmmakers will allow the French audience to get closer to the universe of Bulgarian contemporary cinematography.

Featuring: full-length films, a selection of short films directed by the students from the National Academy of Theatre and Cinema in Sofia (NATFA), a carte blanche to Early Bird, a festival of students movies in Sofia who will celebrate its tenth anniversary. The artistic director of this festival will be invited to France to participate and to present the program of the short films.

Our partners:

Rencontres du moyen-métrage de Brive – Fémis (École nationale supérieure des métiers de l'image et du son, France) - Université Paris 8 - Institut Français de Bulgarie – NATFA (National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts, Bulgarie) - Dom Na Kinoto, Sofia - Early Bird Student Film festival – Nisi Masa European Network of Young Cinema – Jazz FM Radio Sofia - Association AC – Laboratoire des initiatives culturelles

Rencontres du jeune cinéma européen - Meetings of Young European Cinema