It would be hard to find a festival more severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic than the Sofia International Film Festival, the 24^th edition of which was cancelled just three days before it was supposed to start in March. But the gathering is now back on track, favouring as many as three different strands in order to make the world's newest films available to its audience.

The festival is splitting into two physical editions, SIFF Summer and SIFF Autumn. The first will start on 25 June with the Bulgarian premiere of Bong Joon-hoo's Parasite and will end on 6 July with a screening of Jessica Woodworth and Peter Brosens' The Barefoot Emperor [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Jessica Woodworth
scheda film], a Bulgarian minority co-production. SIFF Autumn will take place in September and October, with dates to be announced soon.

For the first time ever, the festival will be available online. SIFF Online is being organised in partnership with Festival Scope and Shift72, with approximately 80 titles set to be available to watch from home, geo-blocked to the country's territory. Most of these titles are competing in the festival's four competitions: the International Competition, Balkan Competition, Documentary Competition and Bulgarian Short Film Competition. Eliza Petkova's A Fish Swimming Upside Down [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] (which debuted at this year's Berlinale), Viktor Chouchkov's 18% Grey [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Viktor Chouchkov
scheda film], Srdan Golubovic's Father [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Srdan Golubović
scheda film], among many others, will be available through SIFF Online for a period of three weeks.

"With its online edition, SIFF becomes a festival for the whole country," the organisers stated in a press release, stressing that the challenging itinerary of the 2020 edition has led to a more open and accessible festival. As for its physical edition, the event will favour outdoor and alternative venues, with screenings also taking place in Sofia's Cinema House, the only indoor venue used for the summer edition of SIFF.

The festival's jury consists of British director Peter Webber, Mexican producer Nicolás Celis, US producer Jim Stark and Bulgarian actress Irmena Chichikova. The award winners of this edition, including the recipient of the “Sofia City of Film” Trophy, will be announced on 6 July.