The Roman Amphitheater downtown Plovdiv is to turn into an arena of heavy battles, as creators of best short drone movies will compete within the second edition of the DroneUp International Film Festival.

“The idea of the festival is to collect the best drone-made films from across the globe and to show them at this local level here in Bulgaria, in order for the audience to be able to enjoy this new type of art – this new genre gives another perspective for the world and our everyday life,” Mr. Petyo Petkov, one of the event’s organizers, explains.

The dream about this forum was born in 2015, when barely 5 – 6 events of that kind existed around the globe.

“We dare to say that we are the first of our breed, as our festival differs from the others. This is not the typical film festival in a hall for specialized public. We would like to meet the latter with street art and hence for the open air option – free on the Roman Arena.”

Petyo Petkov and his colleagues felt inspired by the initial edition of the festival last year when their movies were screened for audience of thousands. That gave them the power to proceed. The festival’s team is international, based in Copenhagen:

“We are a young team of 7, who live in Denmark and we are interested not that much in drones, but in the organization of events and the meeting of art with the audience – this is our major motivation. On the other hand, there comes stubbornness, as some stubbornness is required, in order to organize an event from a distance of 2,000 km. However, we do it and I am really happy that we will be able to do it again. We believe that this is a great event with huge potential, providing an opportunity to see the world from another perspective.”

The regulation says that the movies are short, with maximum length of 6 minutes. The Bulgarian ones are seven in number, participating in three different categories:

“On August 25^th – 26^th people will watch at 8 pm the finalists, selected by an international jury. Nearly 80 movies from 30 countries have applied. We will screen 35 of them in six different categories on the Roman Arena. The latter are: Nature; Cities; Wild & Extreme; Story & History; Travel and the special Bulgaria category. However, this is not all – this year we have expanded the festival by one more day, so on August 26^th and 27^th people will have the chance to feel the thrill of drone flights on their own. We have organized this daytime program, where anyone can join different drone workshops, demonstrations and games. So, there will be something for everyone, for both kids and grownups. The interesting about this festival is that it manages to capture the best of two different worlds – new technology and antiquity, via the Roman Arena. I dare say that we make the past with the future meet,” Petyo Petkov says in conclusion.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev