13
Mar
2019

The 16th SofiaMeetings is presenting Eastern Lights

This year Sofia Meetinng is initiating a new project in its framework:

EASTERN LIGHTS Rising Acting Stars from the East
With this new initiative Sofia Meetings is aiming to promote upcoming actors from the East. Our rising actors this year are:

Dimitar Krumov holds a bachelor's degree in Acting, graduated in 2015 from National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts. He took part in Cat Dreams (short) by Klara Stoyanova (director ), performing the boy, and  he won “The Grand Prize” of Aarhus Short Film Challenge 2012. 

Portrayed Vancho in the movie Hristo, for which he has won the award for “Best supporting male actor” by the Bulgarian Film Academy. The same year he won an Askeer, a Bulgarian theatre award, for the performance in “This is NOT Hamlet” in the “Rising Star” category.

Dimitar Nikolov is an actor, known for Hristo (2016), The Infinite Garden (2017) and Away From The Shore (2018). 
AWARDS 
Golden Rose Award - Best Actor in a Leading Role (for Hristo)
Bulgarian Film Academy - Best Actor in a Leading Role (for Hristo)
OIFF Turin Cinefest - Best Actor in a Leading Role (for Hristo)

Julian Petrov holds a bachelor's degree in Acting from the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts, (NATFA).  
He participates in the films Singing Shoes and Loosers, also the TV series Dear Heirs. Among the plays he's performing in theatre are: Equus, Momo, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Almost an Evening and others.
Currently he is part of the "Nikolay Binev" Youth Theatre.

Martina Apostolova is a Bulgarian actress and performing artist known for Irina (2018), Whole (2018), Bread (2018). She began her acting career in the theatre as a student, playing big roles in several theaters in Sofia. Martina also filmed her first TV series roles before she graduated. After she graduated, she continued to be part of the Bulgarian theatre and underground arts stages as well as shooting in shorts and TV productions. She made her big screen debut in the film Irina (2018) as a lead actress.
AWARDS - Cottbus Film Festival of Young East European Cinema 2018 – Award for Outstanding Actress (for Irina); Golden Rose Bulgarian Feature Film Festival 2018 – Winner of Best Actress (for Irina); Warsaw International Film Festival 2018 – Special Jury Award (for Irina)

Ralitsa Stoyanova  graduated from the National Academy for  Theatre and Film Arts „Krustyo Sarafov”. For 6 years she has been acting  in a drama-puppet theatre "Konstantin Velichkov" and she is taking part in eleven project in the leading roles at the moment. She holds two awards related to acting- "Sivina", for young artist and "Stoyan Kambarev" for a promising actress. Participated in the series Stolen life and Father's Day and the short film Meeting. Ralitsa is in the leading roles in two work-in-progress films – Samodiva and Sisters (Working title).

Raya Peeva holds a bachelor's degree in Acting from the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts, (NATFA).  Among the plays she's performing in theatre are: Alice in Wonderland and Patrick Marber’s Closer. Raya Peeva is also film actress, known for Singing Shoes (2016), Hello, Love, Goodbye(2011) and Dear Heirs (2018).
Currently she is part of the "Nikolay Binev" Youth Theatre, where she started performing since 2014. She has won the prestigious award  “Ikar” for theatre arts.

Stoyan Doychev was born on in Varna and  graduated Acting for puppet theatre in National Academy  for Theatre and Film Arts “Krustio Sarafov”.  He works as a freelancer in theatre performances like “Immurement”, “I, Sisyphus” and “Love me”. Stoyan has the main role of Asencho in Heights directed by Victor Bojilov. He took part in some other films now in post-production phase - A Dose Of Happiness and Rounds, also the short film named So Close Away.

Vesela Babinova holds a bachelor's degree in Acting from the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts, (NATFA). Among the characters she's performing in theatre are: Shakespeare’s Ophelia, Molière’s Elize and Maria from “Twelfth night”. Currently she is part of the National Theatre "Ivan Vazov", where she starts performing during her third year in NATFA, "Little city theatre off the channel” and Theatre Laboratory “Sfumato” companies. 

Vesela has several short films, two feature films - A Picture with Yuki, dir. Lachezar Avramov, which is part of this year’s Sofia Film Festival and Omnipresent, (dir. Iliyan Djevelekov), the Bulgarian proposal for the Oscars, 2019. Now she is playing the main character in the limited drama series Father’s Day (Bulgarian National Television,2019) which was selected for the Drama Series Days (Berlinale) and Serie Series (Fontainebleau, France).