The 12th edition of the CineLibri international film and literature festival will open on Thursday, the organizers said.
The programme, which begins on October 15, 2026, includes 75 films and more than 40 special events. These include two ceremonies attended by distinguished artists from around the world, cultural gala evenings, events for children and teenagers, book signings, celebrations and educational discussions.
Danny Boyle’s drama Ink opens this year’s festival. Adapted from a much-discussed contemporary play about the turbulent rise of the tabloids, it offers a parable of blind ambition. Following its world premiere in Venice, the film will have its Bulgarian premiere on October 15, 2026, in Hall 1 of the National Palace of Culture (NDK), immediately after the opening ceremony.
The feature film adaptation competition includes Radu Jude’s Diary of a Chambermaid, which transposes Octave Mirbeau’s classic novel to contemporary Europe, turning it into a merciless satire of privilege, social inequality and migration. The selection also includes the dramatic queer epic The Black Ball, which connects the stories of three men through a mysterious unfinished play by Federico Garcia Lorca. After winning the directing award at Cannes, shared with Pawel Pawlikowski’s Fatherland, the film took the audience award in Toronto. Also competing for the most compelling screen adaptation award are new films by Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi, who won an Oscar in 2022 for Drive My Car and a Silver Lion in 2023 for Evil Does Not Exist, and Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, a two-time Oscar winner for best foreign-language film. Hamaguchi’s All of a Sudden explores human dignity, the art of caregiving, philosophical attitudes to illness and the role of friendship. It stars Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto, joint winners of the best actress award at Cannes. Inspired by Krzysztof Kieslowski’s landmark television series Dekalog, Farhadi’s Parallel Tales examines how fiction and reality intertwine and shape the characters’ choices. Its cast includes Efira, Isabelle Huppert, Vincent Cassel, Pierre Niney and Catherine Deneuve.
Other competition entries are The Assistant, adapted from Swiss writer Robert Walser’s novel of the same name, and the romantic drama Allegro Pastell, based on the eponymous novel by Leif Randt, a representative of the new wave in German fiction.
A grande dame of French cinema, Huppert appears in three films in this year’s programme. Alongside Parallel Tales, she plays Countess Bathory in Ulrike Ottinger’s horror parody The Blood Countess and stars in Marc Fitoussi’s comedy Unknown Worldwide. The latter two films screen outside the competition.
Two Bulgarian films are in the main competition: Kostadin Bonev’s She Who Remains, adapted from Rene Karabash’s novel, and the black comedy Taxi to Heaven by Ivan Nitchev and Todor Chapkanov. She Who Remains will have its official premiere at Lumiere Cinema on October 16, 2026, with the filmmaking team attending. Taxi to Heaven premieres on October 24, 2026.
The international jury, comprising Jim Sheridan, Clive Russell, Jakob Jonia, Maria Jurado and Teodora Markova, will name the winner of the best screen adaptation award in the feature film competition on November 3, 2026, in NDK’s Hall 1. The documentary competition winner will also be named that evening. The ceremony will culminate in a preview screening of Pawlikowski’s latest film, the black-and-white biographical drama Fatherland, which has won critical acclaim and impressed admirers of auteur cinema. Before the screening, the Polish-British director and screenwriter will receive an award for his outstanding contribution to cinema, recognizing his use of understatement and defence of human freedom amid historical upheaval. The event will also feature a conversation between Pawlikowski and Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov.
As usual, the films and events are grouped into thematic strands whose titles indicate their genres and subjects. This year’s strands are The Gold Rush, Some Like It Hot, Commedia dell’Arte, Life: A User’s Manual, After the End of the World, Tender Is the Night, Journey to Italy, Liquid Modernity, A Brighter Tomorrow and Short and to the Point. The programme includes Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s new film Fresh Water for Flowers, adapted from Valerie Perrin’s bestselling novel and starring Leila Bekhti, Melvil Poupaud and Sergio Castellitto. Screenwriter Guillaume Laurant, Jeunet’s longtime creative partner, will visit Bulgaria for the premiere.
The programme also features new films by Xavier Giannoli, Christophe Honore, Nanni Moretti, Mario Martone, Giuseppe Tornatore and Mike van Diem, alongside adaptations of works by Jane Austen, Mieko Kawakami, Laurent Mauvignier, Jose Saramago and Domenico Starnone.
CineLibri Festival to Open with Danny Boyle’s Ink THE NEWS FROM BULGARIA – NEWS AGENCY 2009-2025 2026-10-15 06:20:29
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BULGARIA NEWS – NEWS AGENCY 2009–2026 2026-10-15 06:20:29
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