At a special ceremony at Lumiere Cinema (April 14), the awards of the Master of Art'2019 competition program were presented. The pre-selection for the festival was made among more than 400 documentaries devoted to arts, and more than 50 participated in the competition. The prizes were a total of 19 - in the main thematic categories, as well as a few special ones. The Master of Art AURUBIS AWARD for the best film at the festival was given to the "Greenaway Alphabet" (2017). Director is Saskia Boddeke (Netherlands), wife of the great director Peter Greenaway. The film is a portrait of this unconventional creator presented through an "alphabet" he created with the help of his daughter Zoe in his quest to reveal and explain his personality. This is an alphabet bringing artistic and personal life together.

The prize of the America for Bulgaria Foundation for best Bulgarian film was given to “Interlude Monologue” by director Petar Valchev (2018), who has shot an exciting documentary about prima ballerina Vesa Tonova.

In the "Architecture and Design" category, the jury chose "Mies On Scene. Barcelona in two acts" (2018) with directors Pep Martín & Xavi Campreciós from Spain.

Among the films in the "Music and Dance" category, winner became Behind The Wall (2019), which is a documentary on Dimitris Papaioannou by Greek director Nefeli Sarri.

The Best Film Award in the category "Video Art and Art Advertising" went to Julio Dojo for "Umnata" (literally,“Be wise!”) from Germany. Julio is half Bulgarian and the 5-minute film presents magnificent images and traditions from Bulgaria.

Organizers and members of the international jury have pointed out that competition in all categories was very strong and all films screened were of very high quality.

Here is what member of the jury Katharina Jeschke, secretary general of a non-governmental organization established under the aegis of UNESCO, told us about this year’s festival:

English: Alexander Markov