"Blaga's Lessons" is Bulgaria’s candidate for Oscar

"Blaga’s Lessons" directed by Stephan Komandarev is Bulgaria's candidate for the 96th Academy Awards, the National Film Centre announced on September 7.

Stefan Komandarev's film was unanimously selected by a panel including Lyudmila Hristozova Dyakova; Zornitsa Sofia Popgancheva; prof. Emilia Stoeva; PhD, senior assistant, Dean Statulov and Hristo Hristozov.

"Blaga's Lessons" won the Crystal Globe Grand Prix at the 57th Karlovy Vary Film Festival, held 30 June – 8 July 2023, as well as Grand Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, which is awarded for upholding Christian and moral values through cinema.

At the same festival, Bulgarian actress Eli Skorcheva, who stars in “Blaga’s Lessons”, won the Best Actress award for her role as a teacher who loses all her savings because of phone scammers. With this role, Eli Skorcheva returned to the cinema after almost 30 years of absence.

The film tells the story of Blaga, a retired and recently widowed elderly woman who falls victim to telephone scammers and is left without her savings and without money for her late husband's grave. Her life turned upside down, she realises she has no way to get her money back until she receives a tempting but suspicious job offer. The once strict and honest woman, slowly begins to transgress all her principles.