Describe the main features of the measure/initiative:
Movie Block started in 2015 as an independent project to promote contemporary Bulgarian cinema to the widest possible audience, aiming at decentralising cultural life and moving it to suburban areas.
The main aspiration of the Movie Block team is an open access to culture for all Sofia residents, as well as revival of the urban cultural environment.
The programme unfolds in three main panels - Animation Movie Block, Documentary Movie Block and Feature Film Block – with open-air screening between residential buildings in remote neighbourhoods.
Movie Block operates in partnership with various national and municipal institutions in the field of culture and in particular cinema (Culture Directorate of Sofia Municipality, Bulgarian National Film Archive, National Film Centre), as well as with various national institutions and NGOs in the field of urban planning (Vision for Sofia, University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy), and with private partners (IKEA Bulgaria and Kaufland Bulgaria).
Website of the measure/initiative, if available:
What are the results achieved so far through the implementation of the measure/initiative?:
During the five editions organised up to now nearly 100 feature, documentary and animated contemporary Bulgarian films have been shown on the big screens free of charge in front of 20,000 viewers. Over 3,000 elementary school students attending various schools across the capital have become viewers of a special programme – modern Bulgarian animation for children.
The project enables a close audience encounter with the new Bulgarian films in the context of the small number of cinemas and the sketchy presence of domestically produced films in the multiplexes’ programme.
Movie Block manages to cover mostly more remote metropolitan areas where, until twenty years ago, there were neighbourhood cinemas and whose territories today, for the most part, are devoid of specialised cultural spaces attractive enough for an audience. The main goal of the project is to create a new film audience that is familiar with Bulgarian films. An audience that, in the foreseeable future, will feel a need to visit cinemas because of a conscious cultural necessity.
For the 2016-2019 period, the budget of the Movie Block amounts to USD 28,632.