The first success story of the partnership between Sofia as a candidate for European Capital of Culture '2019 and the Bulgarian Association of Communication Agencies (BACA) is a fact: for the first time in the history of the most prestigious international advertising festival, Cannes Lions, Bulgarian participants won the gold in the film category.
The winning team, Zhelez Atanasov and Vladi Gerasimov, also took the first prize in the competition for an official campaign video for Sofia 2019, Sharing Sofia. The competition took place in March 2014 and was organized by the Bulgarian Association of Communication Agencies as the official representative of the Cannes Film Festival, in partnership with the Metropolitan Municipality and Sofia Development Association. Vladi Gerasimov is a producer in the advertising agency Noble Graphics, and Zhelez Atanasov is the agency’s Director of Strategic Planning. After this victory at home they were chosen to represent Bulgaria at the Cannes Film Festival, in the Young Lions Film program. Zhelez and Vladi took the gold, this time in competition with participants from 35 countries.

In the competition in Cannes the participants had to create a film on a specific topic. They had 48 hours to work on the film, without any external assistance and technical support. This year the theme was set by the Australian NGO Barnardo's Australia (barnardos.org.au) - to inform the public that the problem of child abuse exists even in developed countries such as Australia, where every two weeks a child dies from violent abuse.

"This award means a lot to us because it is the first for Bulgaria and the advertising community in the country, and the festival in Cannes is the biggest event of the year. Upon their return from Cannes, Zhelez and Vlaid shared: “Our adventure began with the Bulgarian competition to support the candidacy of Sofia for European Capital of Culture in 2019 and had a happy ending, so we hope for a similar success in September for Sofia!"

See the videos for Sharing Sofia here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOpnzwmRpbE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaBo078Ho-A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJm2bYIgQvw

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