There are over seventy documentaries included in the upcoming edition of the festival, and 51of them compete for the Master of Art Award. Six of them are works of Bulgarian directors and will compete in another competition too – the one for best Bulgarian film. The short films are 17 and also compete for a separate award. Nayo Titsin, creator and artistic director of Master of Art, presented some of the works:

“This is the only Eastern European festival devoted to art seen through the documentary film’s perspective. This year the category of ‘Architecture and Design’ has strong presence. I could point out the film by Carlos Saura about great Italian architect Renzo Piano. Another very interesting film is ‘Mies on Scene. Barcelona in two acts’. It tells a unique story about a unique building – Germany's pavilion built for the World Exhibition in Barcelona in 1929 under a project by great architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. After eight months of existence, the building was destroyed, but it was so innovative for its time that it remained in the minds of modern architects as a legend. In the 1980s, it was decided that the building is restored on the same location in Barcelona. Nowadays this is the building where the ceremony of the Mies van der Rohe Modern Architecture Awards takes place. It is a beautiful story.”

There are a total of 12 categories in the festival. These include Art and Children, Theater and Cinema, Contemporary and Protest Art, Art Installations, Art in Video Games and VR, America for Bulgaria panorama, and others. As in the previous editions of Master of Art, the program features remarkably interesting documentaries dedicated to music.

“This year we have included a documentary about great violinist Itzhak Perlman – a fascinating person presented in the most enjoyable way," says Nayo Titsin. “Thanks to the strength of his will and his tremendous talent, he managed to overcome prejudices, difficulties and physical disabilities in order to conquer world stages. The movie is both fun and charming. A very important documentary for me is also the Orchestra of Exiles, dedicated to Polish violinist Bronislaw Huberman, who was having concerts in Central Europe during the 1930s. Some call him Schindler of the Musicians because he saved hundreds of Jews. Huberman organized a campaign to recruit musicians to form an orchestra on the territory of today's Palestine. Together with the musicians, their families left too. In order to raise funds, he organised charity concerts. Einstein helped him organize a concert at Carnegie Hall, but his violin disappeared there. The instrument was made by an Italian master back in the 18th century. Long time later it was discovered that the violin was stolen by a musician who, shortly before his death, confessed to his wife what he had done. The violin had been resold several times and these days Joshua Bell plays it. The Orchestra of Exiles became the basis for the creation of the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra. This year, on the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, we naturally created the ‘Art and Power’ category. It features films that reveal the difficult, often tragic, relationship between artists and oppressive regimes.”

Of course, among the documentaries included in the festival's program, there are dozens of interesting works devoted to various arts and people. The official opening is on April 4th in Lumière Lidl. On the same day the film "Klimt & Schiele – Eros and Psyche” will be screened. The festival continues until April 25 and is held in Sofia, Plovdiv and Varna.

English: Alexander Markov