Agnieszka Holland and Toni Servillo took home awards from the ceremony at the National Palace of Culture.
The biographical drama The Disappearance (2025) by director Kirill Serebrennikov won the 2025 CineLibri Award for Best Film in the feature film competition. The movie is an adaptation of the novel The Disappearance of Josef Mengele by French writer and journalist Olivier Guez, winner of the prestigious Renaudot literary prize. This is yet another award for masterful achievement in the field of adaptation for Serebrennikov, known for his creative audacity and his uncompromising stance towards the despotic regime in Russia.
The award ceremony took place on October 24 in Hall 1 of the National Palace of Culture in the presence of the jury consisting of Claes Bang, Aton Soumache, Sergei Loznitsa, Tonya Sotiropoulou, and Katya Trichkova. Bang, as president of the jury, announced the winner and the motivation behind the decision: “The award is given for the powerful fusion of bold cinematic decisions, a skilfully adapted screenplay based on the extraordinary novel by Olivier Guez, and masterful direction, which allows the spectator to look into the depths of the human soul and try to understand the motives of a person who embodies the idea of the banality of evil. The wintry black-and-white style, the deep psychologism, and the phenomenal performance of August Diehl in the role of the relentless Nazi executioner doctor Josef Mengele, who went down in history with the monstrous experiments in the death camps, contribute to the dramatic charge and the overall suggestion of the film about the ineradicable evil, which is dangerous when it remains unpunished. The resonance of this penetrating cinematic experience is amplified by the ominous parallels with today’s reality.”
In the category for best documentary film related to literature, the jury, represented by Tatiana Pandurska, Lisa Boeva, and Dimitar Kotsev-Shosho, awarded the prize to The Natural History of Destruction. The film, based on an essay by the great German writer W. G. Sebald, was directed by Sergei Loznitsa.
An Award for Outstanding Female Cinematic Voice was presented for the first time in the history of the festival. With this prize, the Bulgarian branch of the European Women’s Audiovisual Network EWA BG will honour feature films by female directors who express the inherent female sensitivity and emotional depth. The CineLibri jury singled out Anna Cazenave Cambet’s subtle drama Love Me Tender, an adaptation of Constance Debré’s novel of the same name, “deeply authentic and profoundly feminine cinematic voice — a voice that speaks with courage, sensitivity, and truth.”
The highlight of the evening came when world-famous singer and actress Sylvie Vartan, who has Bulgarian roots, took to the stage to present the Honorary Award for Lifetime Achievement and Contribution to the Art of Cinematography to renowned European director Agnieszka Holland. According to the festival organizers, Holland’s unforgettable cinematic epics deal with “uncomfortable” topics such as war, totalitarianism, memory, migration, identity, human rights, the destroyed connection with nature, and survival in inhuman conditions. Her palpable commitment to the pains of the times gives her work immeasurable significance from a cultural and historical point of view. Agnieszka Holland accepted the award in person and expressed her gratitude for the great honour.
The charismatic Italian actor Toni Servillo was awarded the Prize for Outstanding Contribution to the Art of Acting. According to the festival organizers, his organic acting presence guarantees that the films in which he appears will be remembered for a long time. Countless are the literary characters whose images he has built on screen with insight and passion, with skill bordering on perfection. However, his partnership with Paolo Sorrentino and film temptations such as The Consequences of Love, Il Divo, The Great Beauty, and The Hand of God remain emblematic, gaining Sorrentino and his favourite actor international recognition.
After the festive ceremony, Toni Servillo announced the premiere of Paolo Sorrentino’s new film, the captivating drama La Grazia, in which he plays the role of a head of state at a critical moment in his term. For his brilliant performance earlier this year, Servillo was awarded the Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival, and critics unanimously agree that he deserves an Oscar. The end of the screening sparked an explosion of applause, prompting the famous actor to establish a video connection with Sorrentino from the stage so that he could witness the unrelenting ovation of several thousand viewers captivated by his latest stylistic masterpiece.
On November 3, the award ceremony for the winners of the short film competition took place at the RCCA “Toplocentrala.” The jury, consisting of Chris Zahariev, film director and vlogger, Eleonora Ivanova, actress, and Vasil Popov, writer and photographer, selected the Latvian film Kafka in Love from among 12 nominated titles. The director of this mysterious animation, inspired by Franz Kafka’s delicate love letters, is Janis Oborenko. Second place went to the Estonian film Come Sit with Us by Ellis Rumma, and the Bulgarian film Real People by Dimitar Dimitrov won the award for special achievement. As is tradition, the winner received a diploma, a statuette, and a cash prize from TatraTea.