Bulgarian Film 'Beaujolais' Wins Best Drama Award at International Festival in the USA

The short fiction film Beaujolais, directed by Irena Daskalova, has won the Best Drama award at the Kansas City International Film Festival in the United States. This year, over 3,000 productions applied to the prestigious festival, but only 49 were selected, including Beaujolais.

"Beaujolais is a film about an impossible love, teaching us to accept life as it is," says director Irena Daskalova.

Irena Daskalova, director and screenwriter: “There isn’t a specific date when the idea for Beaujolais came to me. It was a process of reflecting on the theme – what I would do if I knew I had only days or months left to live. I incorporated this into a script, a story about an impossible love. And that’s how Beaujolais came to be.”

On the origin of the title, she adds: “The title comes from a metaphor and symbolism linked to the story. It’s inspired by Beaujolais wine, which is young and appears at the end of the year, when everything has quieted down, when a whole year ends and dies in a way, and a new beginning emerges.”

The film stars Darin Angelov, Diana Dimitrova, Vasil Binev, and Denis Daskalov.

Irena Daskalova: “I am very happy with the four actors in Beaujolais. Darin Angelov, Diana Dimitrova, Vasil Binev, and Denis Daskalov – I never doubted that they would deliver, but what impressed me most was their dedication, both as actors and as people. I’m delighted we could share the journey of making Beaujolais together.”

Darin Angelov, actor: “The challenges were mostly about achieving the emotional depth required for the roles. These kinds of heartbreaks are difficult to portray authentically, especially when they’re not part of everyday life. To truly immerse yourself, you have to break yourself down and start feeling towards your partners, the crew, the whole process. The hardest part wasn’t filming the intense emotional scenes, but rather stepping out of them, recovering, and returning to your normal rhythm and life. That was perhaps the toughest challenge for me.”

The climax of the film is the moment when the protagonist receives a letter from his lover, the actor says.

Angelov notes that the film’s climax is when the main character receives a letter from his beloved: “The moment my character, Al, receives the letter from his beloved, revealing what has happened – I won’t spoil it for viewers – is the film’s greatest turning point. It was my most powerful and emotional scene. We even managed to shoot two clean takes because it required deep immersion, with many tears and strong emotion.”