“Rehearsals for a Revolution” won the Best Female Director award at Sofia DocuMental 2026
“Rehearsals for a Revolution” won the award for Best Woman Director at Sofia DocuMental 2026; “Elena in Deleyna” and “A Song Without a Home” were among the big winners
At the official awards ceremony for the seventh edition of Sofia DocuMental, held at the Cinema House, the winners of the festival’s three competition programmes were announced.
The award for Best Woman Director went to Pegah Ahangarani for the film Rehearsals for a Revolution. The international jury, comprising Ola Salwa, Radu Ciorniciuc and Charlotte Ducos, explained their decision as follows:
“For a deeply personal story, told with remarkable precision and visual and verbal clarity, which feels both intimate and universal, the jury awards the Best Director prize to Pega Ahangarani. Art allows us to rehearse. In life, we step straight onto the stage – often without a script or a crew to protect us.”
For the seventh consecutive year, the award was made possible with the support of the Bulgarian Fund for Women and was presented by the fund’s co-director, Gergana Kutseva. The symbol of the award is a statuette in the shape of a glass hammer, created by the artist Svetlana Mircheva. An honourable mention in the same competition was awarded to the film With Love and Rage by director Bojina Panayotova.
In 2026, the festival expanded its scope with two new competition programmes:
In the newly established Bulgarian Competition, the jury – comprising Marko Grba, Vanya Dimitrova and Tatjana Božič – awarded the prize for Best Bulgarian Documentary to Elena Stoycheva’s debut film ‘Elena in Deleyna’(produced by Svetoslav Draganov). The jury highlighted the author’s dramatic mastery and the sincerity with which she challenges stereotypes about depopulation. An honourable mention in the Bulgarian competition was awarded to Raina Teneva for the film 'Geography Is Destiny'.
Special media awards were also presented as part of the Bulgarian competition:
The ‘Dnevnik’ Special Media Award (for marketing campaign, presented by Editor-in-Chief Velislava Popova) went to the film "Between Days, Between Nights" for its powerful exploration of the theme of segregation. The film "Dear Maria" also received additional coverage on the Cultural Work podcast.
For the first time, the Award for Best International Human Rights Documentary was presented, in collaboration with Amnesty International Bulgaria. The jury (Kumjana Novakova, Lina Vdovii and Venelin Petkov) awarded the prize to the film “A Song Without Home” by director Rati Tsiteladze. The award was presented by the director of Amnesty International Bulgaria, Nayden Rashkov.
We will find out on Sunday, as part of the “Big Cinema” event, which film will be awarded the Audience Award, sponsored for the second year running by Kaufland Bulgaria.