“MASTER OF ART” FILM FESTIVAL 2018

Master of Art (MofA) is the first and only international film festival on the Balkans for Art Documentaries

Our goal is to present the best documentaries produced and released after January 1, 2016 in the field of music, dance and theatre, art, architecture and design, literature, video art and advertising, contemporary art, installation art and protest art; culinary art; art in video games; art for children Thus the festival will lintroduce the Bulgarian audience with the contemporary trends in this area.

The mission of MofA Film Festival is by presenting documentaries – films and television productions of independent producers and directors to provide an alternative to mass culture and create an opportunity for professionals in the field of documentary cinema, music, dance, theater, visual arts, architecture and literature to meet and to contribute to a dialogue and cooperation between them; establish MofA as a forum for young talents by creating new opportunities for their full development and creative performance.

Master of Art Film Festival is organised by Spotlight Production Company, The National Palace of Culture and “Master of Art” Foundation.
The festival funds are raised by participation fees, financial subsidies, donations, sponsorship and advertising.
The third edition of the festival will take place from 12 to 30 April 2018 in 5 movie theaters in Sofia – Cinema Lumière Lidl, Cinema Odeon, Euro Cinema, Cinema G8 and Cinema House.

• The third edition of the festival will take place from 12 to 30 April 2018 in 5 movie theaters in Sofia – Cinema Lumière Lidl, Cinema Odeon, Euro Cinema, Cinema G8 and Cinema House.
• Master of Art Film Festival is organised by Spotlight Production Company, The National Palace of Culture and “Master of Art” Foundation.
• The festival funds are raised by participation fees, financial subsidies, donations, sponsorship and advertising.
• “Master of Art” Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to support the Art in Bulgaria by organizing events that enrich the cultural canvas of the society. Thank you for your support!

• “Master of Art” Award — Best Documentary of the festival:
  FACES, PLACES
  France (2017), 89 min.
  Directed by Agnes Varda and JR
  Produced by Rosalie Varda, Charles S. Cohen
• “America for Bulgaria” Award for Best Bulgarian Documentary bestow by “America for Bulgaria” Foundation — Master of Bulgarian Art Doc:
  DAGA — STORIES IN PICTURES
  Bulgaria (2016), 77 min.
  Directed by Maria Nikolova
  Produced by Sotir Gelev, Penko Gelev, Gekkon Animation Studio and Four Hands Studio
• Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary Debut — Youth Jury Award:
  ETGAR KERET: BASED ON A TRUE STORY
  Netherlands (2017), 67 min.
  Directed by Stephane Kaas and Rutger Lemm
  Produced by Katja Draaijer, Frank Hoeve, Balard Film, NTR, 2-Team productions
• Audience Award:
  JAM SESSION
  Bulgaria (2018), 80 min.
  Directed by Borislav Kolev
  Produced by PROJECTOR, Maria Landova, Borislav Kolev
• Master of Short Art Award — Award for Best Short Film at the Festiva:
  THE RED HOUSE
  Israel (2017), 21 min.
  Directed by Tamar Tal Anati
  Produced by Amit Ginzler, Hadar Bakshy Shmeltzer, Arava Vineyards Production, Ronny Douek
• Best Documentary in ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN:
  BIG TIME
  Denmark (2017), 80 min.
  Directed Kaspar Astrup Schroder
  Produced by Sonntag Pictures, Sara Stockmann
  
• Best Documentary in ART FOR CHILDREN:
  LIFE, ANIMATED
  USA, France (2016), 91 min.
  Directed by Roger Ross Williams
  Produced by Julie Goldman
• Best Documentary in FINE ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY:
  KOKOSCHKA, LIFE-WORK
  Switzerland (2017) 76 min.
  Directed by Michel Rodde
  Produced by On The Rodde Again Films, RTS Radio Télévision Suisse, Michel Rodde, Pierre-Alain Frey
• Best Documentary in CULINARY ART:
  BAR TALKS BY SCHUMANN
  Germany (2017), 98 min.
  Directed by Marieke Schroeder
  Produced by Marieke Schroeder, Thali Media, Christoph Fisser, Henning Molfenter, Charlie Woebcken, Studio Babelsberg.
• Best Documentary in LITERATURE:
  ETGAR KERET: BASED ON A TRUE STORY
  Netherlands (2017), 67 min.
  Directed by Stephane Kaas and Rutger Lemm
  Produced by Katja Draaijer, Frank Hoeve, Balard Film, NTR, 2-Team productions
• Best Documentary in MUSIC AND DANCE:
  MARIA BY CALLAS
  France (2017), 113 min.
  Directed by Tom Volf
  Produced by Emmanuelle Lepers, Gaël Leiblang, Emmanuel Chain, Thierry Bizot and Tom Volf, Elephant Doc, Petit Dragon, Unbeldi Production
• Best Documentary in CONTEMPORARY ART, INSTALLATION ART, PROTEST ART:
  REVOLUTION: NEW ART FOR A NEW WORLD
  UK (2016), 86 min.
  Directed by Margy Kinmonth
  Produced by Foxtrot Films
• For first time there are two awards in the category THEATER AND CINEMA.
  Best Documentary in THEATER:
  KARENINA & I
  Norway, Italy, Russia (2017), 84 min.
  Directed by Tommaso Mottola
  Produced by Gørild Mauseth
  
  Best Documentary in CINEMA:
  HOPE I’M IN THE FRAME
  Israel (2017), 57 min
  Directed by Netalie Braun
  Produced by Netalie Braun
• Master of Video Art — Video Art & Art Advertising Award:
  FLATLAND
  Iran (2017) 15 min.
  Directeds Alireza Keymanesh and Amir Pousti
  

ART In Video Games AWARDS

• Special Jury Prize
  Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
  Developer: Ninja Theory, Director: Tameem Antoniades
• Best Gameplay Awards:
  
  (AAA Games)
  ASSASSIN’S CREED: ORIGINS
  Developer: Ubisoft Montreal, Directors: Jean Guesdon, Ashraf Ismail
  
  (Indie Games)
  CUPHEAD
  Developer: StudioMDHR, Directors: Chad Moldenhauer and Jared Moldenhauer
  
  (VR Games)
  STATIK
  Developer: Tarsier Studios, Directors: Bjorn Sunesson and Daniel Dalebjork
• Best Storytelling Awards:
  
  (AAA Games)
  NIER: AUTOMATA
  Developer: PlatinumGames, Director: Yoko Taro
  
  (Indie Games)
  NIGHT IN THE WOODS
  Developer: Infinite Fall, Directors: Alec Holowka and Scott Benson
  
  (VR Games)
  THE INVISIBLE HOURS
  Developer: Tequila Works, Directors: Raúl Rubio Munárriz and Rob Yescombe
• Best Visuals Award:
  
  (AAA Games)
  SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS
  Developers: Bluepoint Games/Team ICO, Director: Fumito Ueda
  
  (Indie Games)
  RIME
  Developer: Tequila Works, Director: Raúl Rubio Munárriz
  
  (VR Games)
  RESIDENT EVIL 7: BIOHAZARD
  Developer: CAPCOM, Director: Koshi Nakanishi

Katharina Jeschke
As Secretary General of the IMZ International Music + Media Centre, Katharina Jeschke is a curator, developer and host of music film festivals and competitions worldwide. She has been a jury member at film festivals, BANFF or the International Emmy Awards and draws on expertise in PR for cultural projects, artist management and media production. She is the driving force and programme developer of Avant Première Music + Media Market Berlin, presenting latest music film productions for international broadcasting and coproduction.

Yoon-ha Chang
Yoon-ha Chang was born in 1981, is a Duesseldorf-based filmmaker of Korean origin who has been working as a producer and director since 2001.
After high school, he studied Astronomy and Computer Science at the University of Bonn. At the same time he founded his first film production company with two friends. In the course of the years he worked together with artists like film and music producer Quincy Jones, Academy Award winner Joe Pesci and Frammy award winner Alan Broadbent. His first feature length documentary “I go back home — Jimmy Scott” celebrated the world premiere at the prestigious SouthBySouthwest film festival in Austin, Texas. Further international awards followed like Filmfestival Harlem, New York, International Film Festival in Brussels, Snowdance Filmfestival and Soundtrack Cologne in Germany.

Pierre Moisan
One of Canada’s pioneers in the digital entertainment industry, a seasoned manager and entrepreneur, Pierre Moisan is the Senior Advisor for New Media at the Center for Enterprises and Innovation of Montreal (CEIM). He has acted, over the last twenty years as vice-president of Megatoon (Behavior), founder and president of Artmedia Studio, and producer at Ubisoft.
For nine years, he was Vice-President Strategic & Business Affairs at Frima which became Canada’s largest independent game development studio with 450 employees.
Pierre holds an MA in International Relations from Laval University (University of Montpellier 1, Fellow of the French Republic) and a Bachelor of Law, also from Laval University (Dalhousie University, Fellow of the Government of Canada). He did research on international contracts for three years at McGill university.

Marie-Odile Demay
After directing the distribution department of l’Équipe Spectra (Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, Francofolies de Montréal), Marie-Odile Demay founded in 2008 MODemay Entertainment, an international distributor. She then managed the performing arts and cultural documentary catalogues of renown producers such as Spectra and Rhombus Media and of European producers.
Mrs Demay has also handled executive-production duties for a growing number of films by securing their financing through international coproductions and pre-sales. In addition to producing her own content for television, currently a documentary about conductor Kent Nagano, she specializes in the creation and production of transmedia content. She is actively exploring ways to incorporate complex storytelling into innovative new media platforms.

Sevda Shishmanova
Sevda Shishmanova is a journalist with practical experience in Television program-making. Reporter, commentator and international correspondent in Bulgarian National Television (BNT) and Economedia. Film director and producer.
Film directing graduated with significant background in documentary productions.
In 2002 had won “John Hopkins” University SAIS — Novartis International Journalism Award.
The documentary “The Unfinished War” had been nominated in top 10 for international journalism achievements in 2001.
In 2002 documentary “Pakistan — the shadow of the war” was selected for the main competition of FIPA, Biarritz film festival, France.
In 2009 was awarded the Special prize for outstanding contribution of Bulgarian Book Association.
In 2012 was awarded the prize of Bulgarian Union of Film Makers for Best Producer for the TV Series “Undercover”.
In 2013 was awarded the prize of Bulgarian Union of Film Makers for Best Producer for the TV Series “The Fourth Estate”.

Teodor Dokov
Teodor Dokov’s interest in film was sparked in college by his media studies teacher, Colin Deer. He graduated from the University of Westminster, London with a bachelors in Film and TV production. While at university, he worked on a wide variety of projects, including short documentaries. Afterwards he started working for one of the biggest post-production houses in London, ENVY Post Production, as an offline edit assistant. The projects he worked on there to name a few include: Top Gear, The Voice, The Great British Bakeoff, Gold Rush. Right now Teodor is back in Bulgaria. He is preparing two short films which he plans to direct later this year.

Nayo Titzin
Nayo Titzin is an award-winning filmmaker, producer, director, photographer and journalist. He earned his Master Degree of Arts from the Bulgarian National Music Academy as pianist and continued his studies in cinematography at the Bulgarian National Film Academy and the University of Southern California (USC). From 1993 to 2002 Titzin was a news reporter and producer for the Bulgarian National Television. In 2003, together with his friend — the director Dimitar Kotzev — Shosho, founded the SPOTLIGHT Production Company. Since 2006 Nayo Titzin collaborates closely with the French record label “Harmonia Mundi”, releasing for them several musical documentaries — “Facing Agrippina”, “Looking for Don Giovanni”, Haydn today”, “Idomeneo — A message of Humanity”, “Creating the “Creation” among others. He is the producer of the feature films “Lora from Morning Till Evening” (2011) and “Monkey” (2016), which recently received the Audience Award at Sofia International Film Festival 2016.
In 2013 Titzin was the executive producer of the highly acclaimed Bulgarian National Television TV series “The Fourth Estate”, winner of the Best TV Series Award from the Bulgarian Film Academy 2013 and the Jameson Film Award.
Nayo Titzin is the founder and Artistic Director of “Maser of Art” film festival.

Chris Zahariev
Chris Zahariev, 20 years old, born and raised in Sofia. He studies 2 year Film Directing at the National Academy of Film and Theatre Arts. He loves train adventures, sunflowers and closed spaces. He uploads creative vlogs in his YouTube channel, where he has more than 55,000 subscribers and 3,5 million views. Chris is currently directing & producing the first documentary travel web-series in Bulgaria called “Getting Lost On Purpose”. He believes that there is future in Bulgaria and he’s ready to work hard to prove it!

Alexander Bakalov
Alexander Bakalov is born in 1978 in Sofia, Bulgaria and is popular in entertainment circles under the pseudonym Snake. He is one of the pioneers of Bulgarian journalism, with regard to gaming, cinema and literature. Editor-in-Chief in the cult magazine Gamers’ Workshop, author of translation and editing for lots of literary products, producer in the international company for game gevelopment Gameloft and now PR Manager at the first specialised store for videogames at the Balkans — Pulsar LTD — and chief figure in the entertainment portal website Forplay.bg, his career and his hobbies have always walked hand in hand. His huge knowledge in the fields of movies, games and music, and his often salty language in combination with a rather black humor, have made him one of the most memorable and colorful critics and authors of today. One thing is certain — even at times scandalous and shocking, you can always trust his objectivism and honesty.

Borislava Willnevermadeit
Borislava Willnevermadeit or Borislava Karadjova is from Shumen as much as she is from the National Academy of Arts. She would draw you anything for a quick massage or a sweet treat, especially in the afternoon. She has a style and she is cool even though she says she loves riding her bike but she is always seen pushing it instead.