Fierce competition for Sofia Documentary 2025 awards

For the sixth consecutive year, the Sofia Documentary human rights documentary film festival will honor the best film by a female director. The international jury will determine the winner, and the award is provided with the support of the Bulgarian Fund for Women. Viewers will be able to vote for the best film, which will be awarded the “Audience Award”.

The competition program, which has become a trademark of Sofia Documentary, promotes gender equality and supports the work of a female director. This year, the following will compete for the awards:

Alexis Bloom's The Bibi Files, which features footage from the interrogation of Benjamin Netanyahu on corruption charges and which the Israeli prime minister unsuccessfully tries to stop; the Canadian-Israeli co-production The Law of Stone“ by director Danae Ellen, who Amber Fares and her film „Cohabitation, but another time!“ for the satire exposing painful truths and for the personal and political transformation of Israeli activist and comedian Noam Shuster Eliasi; „My Dear Theo”, filmed by Alisa Kovalenko – a Ukrainian mother who writes letters to her son Theo from the front lines and talks about love, fear and the meaning of life; the combination of sacred images with a feminist vision „Girls and Gods“, in which Arash T. Riahi and Verena Zoltitz Niloufar Taghizadeh and „Googush: Pop Icon of Iran“ – the story of the great star whose voice was taken away by the Khomeini regime, but she returns to the stage and becomes a symbol of hope and resistance against the oppression of women;

„In Hell with Ivo“ – Kristina Nikolova's film about the Bulgarian queer artist Ivo Dimchev, which transforms personal pain and social taboos into bold, intimate and provocative performances; the Hungarian-Swedish co-production „Your Life Without Me“, directed by Anna Ruby, – Marie-Magdalena Kochova's story about the balance between love for loved ones and for oneself and about growing up in a family whose everyday life is subordinated to the special needs of another member; The film about the fragile bonds between parents and children „Dad“

The competition is held with the support of the Sofia Municipality's „Culture“ program. The Sofia Documental statuette - the glass hammer, by Svetlana Mircheva - and the grand prize, provided by the Bulgarian Fund for Women, will be awarded by a jury consisting of:

The audience, who will meet the films from the festival program at eleven locations in the capital - Sofia Largo, House of Cinema, Odeon Cinema, Czech Center, Goethe Institute, French Institute, Polish Institute, Central Halls stage, Synthesis gallery, DOM club, under the open sky on Exarch Joseph Street, as well as online.