The 20^th edition of Sofia International Film Festival begins on Thursday with the screening of the new Bulgarian movie “The prosecutor, the defender, the father and his son” in hall 1 of the National Palace of Culture (NDK) in Sofia.

The largest cinema event in Bulgaria will continue until the end of the month and will celebrate its 20^th anniversary with 200 movies, tens of curious events and special guests such as directors Terry Gilliam, Ted Kotcheff and Bela Tarr.

Some of the special guests will also attend the satellite editions of the festival in the cities of Plovdiv and Varna.

The competition programme will last until March 20, with more than thirty movies contesting in the international, Balkan and documentary categories.

The winners in the different categories as well as the holder of the award of the audience will be announced on March 19.

The programme features a lot of movies awarded from international festivals, a large selection of Bulgarian films as well as music performances by Bryan May and Erik Truffaz.

Screenings are taking place in NDK, Lumiere cinema, Cinema house, Odeon, Euro cinema, G8, the French and Goethe institutes, Mall of Sofia, Vity Center and Bulgaria Mall and at several other locations.

As in previous years, the tickets for the festival come in cans, with the cans costing BGN 6 or BGN 8.

Five of the cans contain the so-called “golden tickets” which grant full access to the films and party programme of the festival.

Since its inception in 1997, more than 1600 films have been screened and it has been recognised as one of the top fifty cinema festivals in the world by the Variety magazine.

Sofia Film Fest started as a thematic music festival and is known for its indissoluble link with Monty Python, with the first edition of the festival dedicated to the British comedians.