Master of Art Film Festival is unique cultural event and the only in Eastern Europe international film festival for Documentaries on Art. It takes place in Bulgaria – Sofia, Plovdiv and Varna.
The festival focuses on different artistic approaches on Art.
Its program is dedicated to Documentary cinema that represents the artistic vision both on history of Art, Contemporary Art forms and to celebrate the multicultural diversity in our time.

Our goal is to show documentaries that manifest the talents and the creative process in the following categories: Architecture, Design and Fashion, Art and Power, Contemporary art, Culinary art, Fine Art, Photography, Literature, Music and Dance, Theatre and Cinema.
Documentaries produced and released after January 1, 2018 are eligible to the competition of Master of Art Film Festival. The festival pays attention also on modern tendencies in Video Art and Advertising.

The mission of Master of Art Film Festival is to create an alternative platform to the mass culture. We want to create an opportunity and to contribute a dialogue and cooperation between artists. The festival is the biggest forum in Eastern Europe for young documentary filmmakers, tempted to tell inspiring stories about the Art.

Master of Art Film Festival is organized by Spotlight Production Company, The National Palace of Culture and ‘Master of Art’ Foundation with the financial support of Municipality of Sofia, AURUBIS BULGARIA, Bulgarian National Film Center and etc.
>The festival funds are raised by participation fees, financial subsidies, donations, sponsorship and tickets.
The 6th edition of the festival will be organized in two parts:

• Online edition from 12 to 28 of February 2021 on a special Festival platform available only from Bulgaria – The online edition will present the all of the Officially selected short documentaries, all of the Officially selected productions in Video Art and Advertising category and part of the Officially selected feature documentaries.
• Live edition from 8 to 29 April 2021 in art cinemas in Sofia, Plovdiv and Varna – The live edition will present all of the Officially selected feature documentaries, part of the Officially selected short documentaries and part of the Officially selected productions in Video Art and Advertising.

The OFFICIAL SELECTION laurel is given to all films selected in the following categories:

“OFFICIAL SELECTION – COMPETITION” laurel

COMPETITION CATEGORIES – DOCUMENTARIES

1. ARCHITECTURE – documentaries for architects, past and present architectural achievements and historic buildings;
2. ART and POWER – documentaries about the relationship between the artists and totalitarian regimes and politic;
3. CONTEMPORARY ART – documentaries about contemporary art the art of XX and XXI century;
4. CULINARY ART – documentaries on the art of preparation, cooking and serving food;
5. DESIGN and FASHION – Interion designers, fashion designers and their works;
6. FINE ART – documentaries about the Fine Art from different eras, galleries and exhibitions;
7. LITERATURE – documentaries about writers, poets, their works and libraries;
8. MUSIC and DANCE – documentaries about music, composers and musicians – opera, classics, folk, jazz, pop and rock; dancers and choreographers – ballet, folk, traditional and contemporary dance;
9. PHOTOGRAPHY – documentaries about the Art of Photography, photographed historic events and Photographers;
10. THEATRE and CINEMA – documentaries about theatre, acting challenges on stage; notable filmmakers and actors.

COMPETITION CATEGORY – VIDEO ART and ART ADVERTISING

(This category has a separate Award and the submitted videos are not competing with the documentaries and video games in the other categories.)

10. VIDEO ART and ART ADVERTISING – video art, experimental videos, art advertisings and Advertisement.

COMPETITION CATEGORY – MORE THAN ART

12. MORE THAN ART – competition for Best Art Film in development.

In addition to all fantastic documentaries for art that are submitted to festival every year filmmakers will have a new opportunity in 2020 edition. We are creating The Master of Art Lab and a special category “More Than Art” for projects in development. Our intention is to support the process of birth of new documentaries dedicated to art in very beginning. Authors are invited to submit their project for Lab competition categories where they compete for the Best Art Film in Development with a special financial prize. The application written in English has to contain synopsis and visual explication not less than five pages and authors filmography. Additional materials like photos or teaser could be attached. Applications must be received until January 20, 2020. If you have an idea for a new amazing art documentary and need initial support – apply and start your achievement in documentary filmmaking! If you win our “More Than Art” competition your world premiere could be at Master of Art Film Festival.

“OFFICIAL SELECTION – OUT of COMPETITION” laurel

OUT of COMETITION CATEGORIES

13. PANORAMA – this category includes exceptional documentaries on art regardless of their date of production;
14. ART HORIZONS – Documentaries that are highly appreciated by the preselecting committee

Carla Stoyanova
One of the young Bulgarian artists, developing in Fine Arts, and so far she has had one solo exhibition at 22nd High School. “S. Rakovski”, as well as co-exhibitions in The Cinema House and Place 167. Her creative outlook on life is based on 14 years of devotion to classical ballet. In addition to her love of Art, she is also interested in science, and two years in a row she is ranked first and second respectively in the National Bulgarian Competition “Space – Present and Future of Mankind” in the category of “Space Models”. Although she is currently studying Communications Management at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, her academic duties do not stop her creative impulse and during her first year, she wins two first prizes in student competitions for Photography and Fine Arts.

Stefan Goncharov
A linguist, a cultural studies student, a poet and a film critic. He has written film criticism for “Banitza.net”, “Filmsociety.com” among others and has covered international festivals such as the Berlinale, Festival de Cannes and the SFF. In 2015 his first collection of poems was published – “Geon” (published by “ARS”), and in 2019 the second came out – “Death is not expected” (published by “Skribens”).

Denis Stoyanov
Born on March 4th, 1996. A member in the theater group “Palechko” in his hometown Yambol (starring main actor in the play “Oedipus the King”). Graduates Journalism at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, specialized in profile “Television. His diploma is a short-film named “iSpectrum: Information through the spectrum of social networking”.

Has been an assistant director of short films, including: “American dream”, “What happened, Sarah” and the documentation “Wake up!”. Been in an internship at BNT — “The day begins with culture”. In 2017-2018 he works as an editor, screenwriter and reporter in the show “Like in a movie” on bTV. Since September 2018 he has been working for Darik Radio, has his own section about cinema and is an editor of the morning block “Darik Cafe”.

Saskia Boddeke
Born in Castricum, is an innovative Dutch multimedia artist and director. From 1984 Saskia worked at the Netherlands Opera as an assistant director on 48 international opera productions with directors like Dario Fo, Peter Stein and Pierre Audi. Her first collaboration with Peter Greenaway as co-director was on the making of the music theatre performance and film, ‘Rosa, a horse drama’ (1992), which was followed up 2 years later with the very successful ‘Writing to Vermeer’.
Her documentary „The Greenaway Alphabet“ received two awards at the Tirana International Film Festival Albania (TIFF 2018): best documentary and best documentary feature, Best Documentary Award at The Master of Art Film Festival 2018, Bulgaria and The Rose D’Or best art documentary 2019.

Dimitar Kotzev
Shosho is a novelist, translator, producer, script writer and director. He has directed the documentary TV series “The Other Bulgaria” and “Open Dossiers”. He’s the author of the short films “Voodoo Calendar” and “Shopping”. He was awarded the Debut Prize at the Bulgarian National Film Festival in Varna in 1995 for the short film “Reflection”. He has produced, written and directed the feature films “Lora from Morning till Evening” and “Monkey” (Audience Prize, Sofia Film Fest 2016), as well as the TV series “Fourth Estate” (Awards for Best screenplay and Best TV series of the Bulgarian Film Academy). Author of the novels “Lora from Morning till Evening” and “Shrimp”. He teaches creative writing for cinema and TV.

Jacinthe Brisebois
Jacinthe Brisebois is the Head of Programming at the International Festival of Films on Art in Montreal for over a year. She has been part of the audiovisual industry for many years serving in the fields of programming, production, and international acquisitions. As Senior Director for ICI ARTV , a cultural specialty channel owned by CBC/Radio-Canada, Jacinthe Brisebois has been responsible for developing the strategic orientations of the channel to bring the best audiovisual content to the viewers. Previously Director of Acquisitions and then Program Director, she has been instrumental in the creation and success of the ICI ARTV channel since 2001. Her new appointment at FIFA is a great opportunity for her to take up a new challenge that could enrich the art and cultural landscape.

Expert in her field, she has been a jury member of three international film festivals: FIFA, Golden Prague, and Prix Italia.

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. 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 mes-sage 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 Audi-ence 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”, win-ner 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.

LIST OF AWARDED FILMS ON “MASTER OF ART” FILM FESTIVAL 2020

• Best film – “Мaster of Аrt” – AURUBIS AWARD
  FORMAN VS. FORMAN
  Czech Republic, France (2019), 78 min.
  Directed by Helena Trestikova , Jakub Hejna

• Best Bulgarian Documentary – bestow by Foundation “PLOVDIV 2019”
  HIGH ABOVE
  Bulgaria (2019), 56 min.
  Directed by Nikolay Vasilev

• Best documentary in Architecture
  PALLADIO
  Italy (2019) 90 min.
  Directed by Giacomo Gatti

• Best documentary in Art and Power (The category is supported by OVERGAS)
  THE RAVEN AND THE SEAGULL
  Denmark (2018) 71 min.
  Directed by Lasse Lau

• Best documentary in Contemporary Art
  MARCEL DUCHAMP: THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE
  USA (2019), 89 min.
  Directed by Matthew Taylor

• Best documentary in Culinary Art
  BURIED SEEDS
  USA (2018), 74 min.
  Directed by Andrei Severny

• Best documentary in Design and Fashion
  THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MY MOTHER
  Italy (2019), 93 min.
  Directed by Beniamino Barrese

• Best documentary in Fine Art
  BOTERO
  Canada, Colombia, France, China, Italy, Monaco, USA (2018), 84 min.
  Directed by Don Millar

• Best documentary in Literature
  IN SEARCH OF KAZANTZAKIS
  Grece (2018), 93 min.
  Directed by Alexandros Skouras

• Best documentary in Music and Dance
  WHERE ARE YOU, JOÃO GILBERTO?
  Switzerland, Germany & France (2018), 107 min.
  Directed by Georges Gachot

• Best documentary in Photography
  DORA MAAR – BETWEEN LIGHT AND SHADE
  France (2019), 52 min.
  Directed by Marie-Eve de Grave

• Best documentary in Theatre and Cinema
  FORMAN VS. FORMAN
  Czech Republic, France (2019), 78 min.
  Directed by Helena Trestikova , Jakub Hejna

• Best documentary in Video Art and Advertising
  ARCHIPAPER
  Poland (2019), 4 min.
  Director Rafal Barnas
• Best documentary in Best Art in VR
  NOT GIVEN


• Master of Short Art – given by the Youth Jury
  PETER DALER
  Italy (2019), 20 min.
  Directed by Davide Rapp
• BNP PARIBAS AWARD for Best Feature-Length Documentary Debut – given by the Youth Jury
  THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MY MOTHER
  Italy (2019), 93 min.
  Directed by Beniamino Barrese
• Audience Award
  FORMAN VS. FORMAN
  Czech Republic, France (2019), 78 min.
  Directed by Helena Trestikova , Jakub Hejna
• Special Jury Mention
  PALLADIO
  Italy (2019) 90 min.
  Directed by Giacomo Gatti