Five young artists have been nominated for the Stoyan Kambarev Flight in Art Award 2017. The award that is named after the unforgettable theatre director, has become one of the most awaited and prestigious distinctions in Bulgaria. The award ceremony is part of the Cultural Calendar of Sofia Municipality. The peculiarity of the Flight in Art award is that it is not strictly specialized in a particular art sphere, but covers a wide range of talented young artists in various fields of art.

UniCredit Bulbank is a main partner of the awards for the sixth time, as part of its programme for support of the development of valuable young artists. 

The winner of the grand award is selected by a jury consisting of members of the Stoyan Kambarev Foundation - key figures from the cultural and social life of Bulgaria, led by the Chair of the Management Board of the Foundation Desi Tenekedzhieva.   But it is not only the winner who will have an impetus for a high flight in art.  The most important aspect is that all nominees receive considerable support for the realization of their particular projects as well as many cash and object prizes.  That is why the true mission of the Foundation and its partners begins after the end of the award ceremony, when the process of realization of the talented young artists’ dreams and art projects begins.

Every year UniCredit Bulbank awards the special prize which provides one of the nominees with the opportunity to present their art with the full support of the bank in the gallery for contemporary art UniCredit Studio.  It is an interesting fact that this year's winner of the special prize will have the opportunity to present their work in the completely renovated and modern UniCredit Studio.  The gallery is now organizing traveling exhibits while waiting for its new venue in Sofia to be created. 

 

The nominees for the Stoyan Kambarev Flight in Art Award 2017

Mina Zlateva - an animator

The 26-year-old Mina creates art in a wide range of visual arts but focuses mainly on animation and photography.  She managed to impress the members of the Foundation with her charming sense of humour, deep empathy and attempt to introduce her own style.  Having participated in interesting exhibitions, Mina graduated from the National School of Fine Arts and later obtained a degree in Animation from the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts. There she developed her natural, simple artistic expression, created a cycle of several short animation films and was selected at international festivals with them.  Together with colleagues of hers, she is now launching a new campaign for animation Feuerwerk Studio.

Ralitsa Stoyanova - a puppeteer

The young actress Ralitsa Stoyanova is completely dedicated to her field, i.e. puppet theatre, and to her love for the most demanding audience in the world - the children.  She has been nominated because of her master puppetry and her talent for singing, dancing and transforming into various vivid characters with great ease.  Born in a family of artists, she has been infected with the magic of the stage since she was a child.  After obtaining a degree in Puppetry from the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts, she joined the theatres in Pazardzhik and Vidin and later became an assistant of her teachers from the Academy.  She is also dubbing films professionally.  Last year, the beautiful and full-of-energy Ralitsa received the Sivina Award for young actors. 

Radoslav Ninov - a painter

The 23-year-old Radoslav is a quite fascinating phenomenon.  He moved to London in 2004 where he graduated from the Tower Hamlets Art College and later from the Goldsmiths University.  In 2015 he received the Neville Burston award for Painting, and then he returned to Bulgaria and found his spiritual and artistic oasis in his studio in Yablanitsa.  Rado, who is extremely honest in terms of his emotions, manages to express himself through a vivid and expressive style and uses this style to speak about his dreams and fantasies.  He has been nominated because of his own exhibition in Rakursi Gallery called Not a Bad Day that brought him the Edmond Demirdjian Foundation Award with its modern and associative artistic language.

Maria Slavova - a singer

Stoyan Kambarev Foundation has been following the development of the 18-year-old Maria for a long time. Surprisingly experienced for her age, she is a soloist in the BNR Children's Radio Choir. She has grown up under the wing of the famous conductor academician Hristo Nedyalkov.  Maria has taken part in many concerts in some of the most renowned halls in the world.  The combination of her beautiful crystal timbre together with her technique which is very good considering her age, and her impressive appearance is rare but winning in the field of classical music.  This year, Maria is a high-school graduate and she will begin her professional training in classical singing as a student at the National Academy of Music.

Hristo Simeonov - a film-director

Hristo is an artist who impresses with sincerity, courage and honesty not only in his films but also in life. The foundation appreciated him because of his raw talent attracted by the dark side of the realism and his easily recognizable cinematographic style.  The young director uses a documentary approach and manages to work in a brilliant way with his unprofessional actors selected by him in a long casting procedure.   His last film called The Son has won a number of awards, including the special prize for short films at the Cottbus Film Festival.  Right now Hristo is working on a new short film and preparing the shooting of his first full-length film called Protected Species.

Additional information

A year ago, the grand Stoyan Kambarev Flight in Art Award for 2016 was presented to the film-director Pavel Vesnakov.  The foundation will produce his next short film and he is already preparing his full-length debut.  The special award of the main partner of the Foundation - UniCredit Bulbank was won by the painter Nora Ampova who will realize her own exhibition by the publishing of a luxury bilingual catalogue.  The young dramatist Kiril Buhovski has already been sent as a Bulgarian representative to the largest international festival for new theatre Europe Interplay 2016 in Gothenburg, Sweden.  The 15-year-old classical guitarist Georgi Dimitrov-Zhozho made a brilliant performance as a soloist of the Sofia Soloists Chamber Orchestra in the Central Military Club and earlier, during his Christmas concert on the stage of Bulgaria Mall.  The actress Denitsa Darinova will participate in a new film and a performance due to the foundation, too.  In the beginning of the year, the theatre director Anastasiya Sabeva received her award from Sofia Municipality, namely the opportunity to put up the play Mary Poppins on the stage of Sofia Theatre which will be premiered soon.

You can see the nominees in a short video here

You can watch the official ceremony from 2016 here

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Additional media information:

Victoria Blajeva, tel +359 (0) 2 9264 993, wjlj/ebwjepwbAvojdsfejuhspvq/ch

Beatris Nikolova, tel +359 (0) 2 9232 528, cfbusjt/ojlpmpwbAvojdsfejuhspvq/ch