Prof. Bojidar Manov has been named President of the five-member Feature Film Jury; a three-member jury, headed by Martina Vachkova, will award prizes to the winning shorts.

Prof. Dr Bojidar Manov presides over the feature film jury. He is a film critic and journalist; a member of the European Film Academy; president and member of international juries at film festivals in Berlin, Venice, Cannes, Thessalonica, Istanbul, Busan, Karlovy Vary, San Sebastian, Valladolid, Palm Springs, Wiesbaden, Gothenburg, etc. Actress Yana Marinova has played lead characters in very popular Bulgarian TV shows and various roles in the features Labyrinths of Love (Russia); Living Legends (Bulgaria) and the box-office hit 11 A. Prof. Stanimir Trifonov is a producer and/or director of over 70 TV series, features and documentaries such as Till Tomorrow… Four Portraits and a Memory (Jury Special Mention, Golden Rhyton, 1989); Elias Canetty. Answer to a Letter (Silver Rhyton, 1993); Image Impossible (Golden Rose, 1996); By God’s Will (Jury Special Mention, Golden Rhyton, 1999); Wolf Hunt (Golden Chest and Best Music Awards, 2000), Parched (Golden Rose, Best Male Lead, etc., 2004); On the Border (Bulgarian Film Academy Awards for Best Series, Best Screenplay and Best Costumes, 2015). Georgi Toshev is a journalist and a producer. He has contributed for the 24 Hours, Kontinent, Dnevnik dailies and for the L’Europeo, MAX, One magazines. He is the maker and presenter of The Unknown and The Other Bulgaria TV documentary series; producer of Before Noon, Like the Movies for bTV, Artefacts, 1002 Nights (BNT). He also contributed for RFI, BBC, ARTE. Ludmil Stanev is a writer/screenwriter/playwright. Some of his screenplays and plays have been produced by the Bulgarian National Radio and the Bulgarian National Television. His writings are in the fields of short stories and the absurd. He has published seven books enjoying republishing on a regular basis. Winner of Hr.G.Danov, Chudomir and Dimiter Dimov literary awards.

A three-member jury, headed by Martina Vachkova, will award prizes to the shorts competing at Golden Rose. Martina Vachkova is hugely popular with Bulgarian audiences. She studied at NATFA and has worked with some of the most renowned Bulgarian theatre, film and TV directors; she began her acting career at the age of 9. Her fellow judges are: Genoveva Dimitrova, one of the leading Bulgarian film critics, editor of the Film Desk at Kultura weekly, author of two books and a teacher; Dimitar Kotzev – Shosho, a writer/translator/producer/screenwriter/director, who authored the features Lora from Morning till Evening and Monkey (Audience Award, Sofia IFF 2016) as well of The Fourth Estate TV series.

This year’s competition programme includes 16 feature and 24 shorts to vie for the two Golden Rose awards and eight more prizes in different categories.