Produced by Activist38:

2021 “Women do cry” – 107 min feature fiction film, dir. by Mina Mileva and Vesela Kazakova,

supported by Bulgarian National Film Centre, ARTE France Cinema, EURIMAGES

2020 “Mishou”, 8 min animation by Milen Vitanov and Vera Trayanova, premiered at Berlinale Generation, 2020

2019 “Cat in the wall” – 92 min feature film, premiered at Locarno Main Competition, co-production between Bulgaria,

UK, France, produced by Activist38, co-produced by Lambros Atteshlis and Cristophe Bruncher

2017 “Margarit and the Monster” – 9 minutes animation, dir. by Nayden Nikolov, supported by the National Film Centre, Bulgaria

2016 “The Beast is still alive” – 90 min documentary, dir. by Mina Mileva and Vesela Kazakova

2014 “Uncle Tony, Three Fools and the Secret Service” – 86 min documentary, dir. by Mina Mileva and Vesela Kazakova

2013 “Because of Mum” – 12 min animation, dir. by Antoaneta Chetrafilova

2010 “Where is your head” - 7 min short fiction, dir. By Nenko Genov

2008 “Just so Darwin” - three episodes from the animated series for BBC 2 with Glasshead limited, London

2008 “Because of her” – 58 min documentary, dir. by Bilyana and Vesela Kazakova

In Progress:

• Kino activism film festival

Awards&Nominations:

• 2019, 2020 “Cat in the wall”

EFA Feature Film Selection 2020

FIPRESCI AWARD at Warsaw Film Festival’19

THE YOUNG CRITICS AWARD at ZERKALO Film Festival’20

THE AUDIENCE AWARD at ZERKALO Film Festival’20

BEST BULGARIAN FILM at Sofia International Film Festival’20

BEST DEBUT at Golden Rose’19

Nomination GOLDEN LEOPARD

Nomination HEART OF SARAJEVO

Nomination Golden Spike

• 2017 “Cat in the wall” (in post-production)

ARTE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS CINELINK AWARD – Sarajevo IFF

POST PITCH AWARD by Post Republic – Connecting Cottbus

• 2015, 2016, 2017 “The Beast is still alive”

IDFA FORUM AWARD 2015 at East Doc Platform Pitch, Prague

BEST DOCUMENTARY of the month at Calcutta Cult Film Festival 2017

BEST DOCUMENTARY at Aegean Docs 2017

BEST ANIMATION Gold Award and BEST DIRECTOR - Bronze Award at the European Independent Film Awards 2018

BEST DOCUMENTARY at European Cinematography Awards 2018

GOLDEN PALM AWARD at Mexico International Film Festival 2018

• 2014, 2015 “Uncle Tony, Three Fools and the Secret Service”

Best Director at Berlin International Film Festival

Royal Reel Award from Canada International Film Festival

Bronze Palm from Mexico International Film Festival

Women D/P Finalist Documentary at Florida Movie Festival

Award of Merit: Documentary Feature from the Accolade Global Film Competition;

First place in "Art" category at the International Heritage Film Festival "Idols";

Honorable Mention at Trindie Fest Film Festival, Colorado, United States;

Best Feature Documentary at 8th Bushwick Film Festival, New York;

Best Documentary at Phoenix Film Festival, Melbourne;

Country Best Award from International Open Film Festival;

Best Feature Film at Arquivo em Cartaz – Rio de Janeiro;

3 nominations at the Bulgarian Film Academy Awards: Best Film, Best Director, Best Sound

• 2013, 2014, 2015 “Because of Mum”

Special Jury Mention for good artistic solution at the 6th International Television Festival “Dytiatko”, Ukraine;

Best Film: Europe 3rd place - Anim!Arte Film Festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil;

Special mention -Valle d'Itria Film Festival, Puglia, Italy;

Best Short Film and Best Animation at Phoenix Comicon festival, USA;

Best Debut and Best Director for Antoaneta Chetrafilova at the Bulgarian Academy Awards 2013;

Special mention - Athens Animfest 2015

• 2012, 2013 “Pancho and Alice”

Best project Award at Sofia Meetings;

MFI’12 - scholarship

EAVE’13 – scholarship

• 2010, 2011 “Where is your head”

Honourable Mention of the Jury at the 17th International Festival of Local Televisions „Golden Beggar“, Košice, Slovakia;

Audience Award - 60 Seconds Short Film Festival in Copenhagen

Bulgarian company Activist38 is attracted to projects with strong political and social engagement as well as a hybrid forms and mix between the genres.

Its producers are strongly present internationally; members of the EDN and alumni of Emerging Producers’13, Eave’13.

Mina and Vesela’s fictional debut - MEDIA and Ile de France supported film “CAT IN THE WALL” (2019) deals with East European migrants in London. Part of EFA Feature Film Selection 2020, the film premiered at Locarno’s International Competition in 2019. It received FIPRESCI Award at the Warsaw Film Festival, Young Critics and Audience award at Tarkovsky Film Festival, Best Bulgarian Film at Sofia Film Fest and Best Debut at Golden Rose, Bulgaria. It has wide coverage on Variety, Screen International, Cineuropa, including featuring as number 1 in their list of best films from summer festivals of 2019. The film is coproduction between Bulgaria, UK and France. Coproducers are Glasshead limited, Ici et la Produduction and the Bulgarian National Television.

Available on HBO Europe and Amazon Prime USA

Mina and Vesela’s authored documentary “THE BEAST IS STILL ALIVE” (2016), dealing with consequences of Communism stirred a national controversy. After one broadcast on the Bulgarian National Television the film set the social media on fire and it was removed from airtime.

The Socialist Party (former Communists) made a legal investigation into why a “propaganda” movie is aired and called the authors “Demonic duo”. With festival selections at IDFA, Sarajevo, Warsaw, Goteborg, ZagrebDox and others and awards at Aegean docs, Calcutta film fest, Mexico IFF, European Independent awards the film gained international recognition. In October 2019 the film was aired on ARTE.

In 2014 Activist38’s first documentary “UNCLE TONY, THREE FOOLS, AND THE SECRET SERVICE” provoked a scandal in the film industry and is still banned from screenings in Bulgaria. While it portrays the story of late animator Antoni Trayanov it also displays the lack of political lustration and the influence of the former Communist Secret Service in current Bulgarian society. It received 11 international awards and it enjoyed successful domestic cinema release. It was reviewed by Variety and it took part in AFI’s selection “Best of European Cinema” in 2014. It was sold to Al Jazeera Balkans and is VoD released on Amazon, iTunes, Apple TV, etc.

Animated short “BECAUSE OF MUM” (2013), dir. Antoaneta Chetrafilova, recipient of 8 international awards is officially the first Bulgarian film to be sold directly to ARTE without the help of a sales agent.

Activist38 also functions as minority coproduction partner, involved in a feature film project from Spain, and few other projects in development.

Their second fiction feature “Women do cry” as producers/directors is already supported by the Bulgarian National Film Center. Selected for WEMW in Trieste where it was awarded for Best project and pitched at CineMart 2020 in Rotterdam, this film deals with the absurd circumstances in Bulgaria around the ratification of the so-called Istanbul convention focused on the gender-based violence.

FILM COMPANY

activist 38