The 29th Sofia International Film Festival (SIFF) will take place from March 13 to 31 under the motto "Time for Cinema", and it will open at the National Palace of Culture with the Bulgarian historical film Bet directed by Svetoslav Ovcharov.

In addition to Sofia, the festival will also extend to Varna from March 21 to 29 at the Festival and Congress Center, Burgas from March 20 to 28 at the Cultural House of the National Theater, and Plovdiv.

This year, Croatian film director Rajko Grlić and Bulgarian actor Yossif Sarchadzhiev will receive the Sofia Municipality Award for their outstanding contributions to cinema. Bulgarian film director Georgi Dulgerov will be presented with the FIPRESCI Platinum Award.

Special guests at the festival will include Danis Tanović with My Late Summer, Konstantin Bojanov with The Shameless (Switzerland, France, Bulgaria, Taiwan, produced by Akka Films and coproduced by Urban Factory, Klas Films and House on Fire), as well as Uberto Pasolini, Patricia Mazuy, actress Jaana Saarinen, Pia Marais, Doron Eran, and Xawery Żuławski with Kulej. Dwie strony medalu / Kulej. Two Sides of the Medal (produced by Watchout Studio and coproduced by ATM Virtual, Veles Productions and Systemics New).

Three Bulgarian feature films have been selected for the main international competition: Windless by Pavel G. Vesnakov, Flesh by Dimitar Stoyanovich, and Eternity Package by Magdalena Ilieva.

The festival will also host the 22nd edition of the industry event Sofia Meetings from March 19 to 23.

Sofia Meetings is an event, supported by Creative Europe MEDIA sub-program of the European Commission, EA Bulgarian National Film Center and Sofia Municipality. It has three separate modules:
Feature Films Pitching – presentation of first, second and third feature fiction film projects of the director, looking for co-producers, sales and distribution.
TV Series Pitching - presentation of projects for TV series looking for co-producers.
Works in Progress – a showcase of films at different stages of post-production to festival programmers, sales agents, distributors, exhibitors and international press.
Sofia Meetings also presents Industry program with various events - Industry Talks, Europa Distribution and Europa Cinemas Workshops, VR/Transmedia Hub presenting immersive interactive experiences and key speakers, panels, presentations and many informal events.

More than 500 industry executives – producers, distributors, representatives of the film markets, sales companies, film funds, TV buyers and other film professionals from different parts of the world, as well as representatives of the key film festivals and directors come together in Sofia to discover new projects and films.