Tickets for Sofia DocuMental 2025 are now on sale
Tickets Now on Sale for the Sixth Edition of Sofia DocuMental
The full program of Sofia DocuMental 2025 is now available, and tickets are officially on sale. The sixth edition of Bulgaria’s international documentary film festival with a focus on human rights will take place in Sofia between September 25 and October 5, 2025. Screenings will be held in cinemas and cultural venues across the city, while part of the program will also be accessible online nationwide.
Following its opening on September 25 with the Bulgarian premiere of Divia by Ukrainian director Dmytro Khreshko, the festival will unfold across iconic locations: Largo Sofia “Cinema Under the Dome,” the House of Cinema, Odeon Cinema, Czech Center, Goethe-Institut, French Institute, Polish Institute, the Central Market Hall stage, Synthesis Gallery, DOM Club, and online via Neterra TV+.
This year’s program is divided into seven thematic sections:
Democracy Under Siege exposes the mechanisms of political pressure while highlighting both the strength and fragility of civil society. Among the films featured are Mr. Nobody vs. Putin, about a Russian teacher resisting state propaganda in classrooms, and Hacking Hate, in which a Swedish journalist investigates neo-Nazi groups and online extremism. The section also revisits history through rare archives — from Leni Riefenstahl’s disturbing legacy to the 1975 Helsinki Security Conference, reexamined with sharp irony and wit.
Past Revisited brings critical cinematic reflections on established historical narratives, challenging the myths that shape our present.
Superwomen and Personal Revolutions tell stories of transformation happening not only in the public sphere but also in deeply personal spaces. From an Iranian singer reclaiming the stage despite the regime, to mothers speaking out from the literal frontlines, to FEMEN activists challenging power structures, women fight both internal contradictions and external injustices. But men’s stories are equally intimate and political: family legends clash with Hollywood myths, while the yearning for closeness with John Malkovich at times eclipses filial bonds.
Human/Nature and The Future Is Now may seem to point in opposite directions, yet both are guided by humanism. In Nit Island, hundreds of square kilometers of virtual space reflect — and often destroy — territories in the real world. Meanwhile, Hayao Miyazaki’s iconic animations and When Tomatoes Met Wagner remind us of the fragile, symbiotic ties that sustain life on our one and only planet.
The festival’s signature section, Art of Resistance, resonates strongly with this year’s motto, “Natural Intelligence Strikes Back.” It features artists who refuse to make art for art’s sake but instead respond — to pressure, to clichés, to boundaries. Among them are performer Ivo Dimchev, who turns his own life into a stage to sing against hate, and photographer Martin Parr, who captures the absurdities of contemporary life and mass culture with equal measures of irony and compassion.