48-hour film challenge popularised in Europe: Bulgaria edition

This week we will look at the influence the 48-hour film challenge has over the smaller European countries especially Bulgaria.

In Bulgaria, the 48-hour film challenge was introduced in a seaside town called Balchik. After that, the challenge has been held every year, in a different city, with a different rule regiment, jury, and at different times of the year while retaining the essence of the 48 hours challenge.

In 2004 Johnnie Oddball was a special guest of an international student film festival held for the second time in Balchik. Johnnie challenged all of the students that were participating in the film festival to create a 5min long film over the span of 48 hours. Before that Johnnie held a seminar where he laid out the rules for everyone who was interested in the challenge. Every team was given a random film genre and title, 15 minutes before the start of the contest. This seminar was the first of its kind in the whole of Eastern Europe.

In 2011 the challenge was held in Varna which is known for being the sea capital of Bulgaria. There was a cash prize of 1000 Bulgarian levs for the participants. Instead at a seminar like in Balchik, this time the explanation of the rules and the allocation of the genres were done via a radio station broadcast. The reason for that was that the organizer of the 2011 48-hour film challenge was Radio Varna. Every team had to send a representative who would draw a lot to determine the team’s film genre and title which would be then announced over the radio.

In 2015 in the capital city Sofia was organised a gala that combined two separate award ceremonies – awarding the participants of the `IN THE PALACE Sofia International Short Film Festival` and after them, the contestants in the 48 Hours Sofia Short Film Challenge.

One of the editions of the `IN THE PALACE Sofia International Short Film Festival` was held in Veliko Tarnovo which was the capital of Kingdom Bulgaria in 1018. The members responsible for the organisation of the 48-hour film challenge were not only from Bulgaria but from Spain, Italy, Portugal, Macedonia, Greece, and Slovakia. There was no rule for participants to be experienced and the film had to be 5min long about the city and its cultural riches. After the end of the contest, there was a special screening of all submitted and awarded films which marked the end of the European youth art week.

In 2018 The prestigious international film festival Love is folly, celebrated its 26th edition in Varna and included in its programme a 48-hour film challenge as the script had to be focused on love, and the genre could be anything – even a musical.

The imprint that the challenge put on the Bulgarian film culture can be noticed by the fact that not only small cities organise events like it but also small ones. Dobrich is one of them and in 2018 during the celebrations of the city`s anniversary, the challenge was announced. The youths had the task to show that their hometown had the potential for developing art culture in it and the title was Beautiful Dobrich.