Zornitsa Sophia

Video interview with Zornitsa Sophia

Zornitsa Sophia was born in Sofia on 27 July, 1972 under the name of Zornitsa Nedyalkova Popgancheva. She graduated painting with Prof. Andrei Daniel at the National Academy of Art in Sofia. She then specialized at the School of Visual Arts, New York and the American University, Washington DC. She took part in over 50 visual arts festivals and exhibitions around the world with video art, installations, performances and paintings, before deciding to switch over to filmmaking. In 1996 -1997 Zornitsa Sophia organized the restoration of the chapel at the Sofia central prison which she carried through together with colleagues and inmates. Before turning to filmmaking, she was art director of international advertising agencies in the course of four years. She specialized film directing at the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts “Krastyo Sarafov” with Academician Lyudmil Staykov.

Her first film Mila from Mars (2004) was declared“the dreamed beginning of Bulgarian independent feature moviemaking”. Variety magazine wrote that “the film marks the bow of a director to watch.” The Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival dubbed it “wild young cinema”.

2009 saw the premiere of her second feature film Forecast with the support of the MEDIA programme andNu Boyana Film Studios. She has directed episodes of five TV series: Tree of life (season 1 and 2),The Mitrani firm, Where is Maggie, House arrest and Sex, Lies and TV.

Zornitsa Sophia has also directed documentaries - Death and all the way back (2005) and Modus vivendi (2007)

She is currently working on the film project Voevoda, in which she also stars in the leading role.

FILMOGRAPHY

Feature films:

Mila from Mars (2004)

26th Golden Rose Bulgarian Feature Film Festival, 2004

  • Grand Prix, , shared with Parched, director Stanimir Triffonov

  • Best Actress Award

  • Bitter Cup Award

  • Debut Award of the Union of Bulgarian Filmmakers

  • Vulo Radev Award

Sarajevo International Film Festival, 2004

  • Grand Prix for best film from the region

  • Special Award for outstanding ensemble performance

Sofia International Film Fest, 2004

  • Kodak Award for best Bulgarian film

Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival, 2004

  • Special Prize in Memoriam R.W. Fassbinder

  • Prize of the Ecumenical Jury

Forecast (2009)

Voevoda (2017)

Link to the project site: https://vimeo.com/user40818341

Documentaries:

Death and all the way back (2005)

Modus vivendi (2007)

Articles