site.bta“The Cruel Path” Wins Top Honor at 29th Golden Rhyton Festival

The documentary film The Cruel Path, directed by Dejan Bararev, received the top award for documentary cinema at the 29th edition of the Golden Rhyton Festival. The award was presented by BTA Director General Kiril Valchev during the closing ceremony at Lucky Cinema House on Monday evening. Valchev highlighted the film’s focus on both the ascent and descent of the young mountaineers, describing it as “a story of both ascent and descent, of courage and memory.”

Valchev also reflected on the festival’s historical significance: “BTA has been covering the Golden Rhyton Festival in Plovdiv for exactly 50 years, since its first edition as the Festival of Bulgarian Short Films with the grand prize ‘Golden Thracian Rhyton,’ first reported by our news agency on October 9, 1975. [...] BTA preserves the news of the ascent and descent recounted in The Cruel Path, including our correspondent Lubomir Kasavetov’s report from May 9, 1984, as the four climbers reaching Everest, alongside archival photos of their departure from Sofia airport on February 20, 1984, and their return on May 31, from which the first Bulgarian to reach Everest, Hristo Prodanov, is absent.”

In addition to the top prize, The Cruel Path earned distinctions from the Bulgarian National Film Archive and the Critics’ Guild. The festival’s award for best animated film went to Balconada, directed by Iva Tokmakchieva, which also received accolades from the Critics’ Guild and the best-director category. Documentary filmmaker Svetlozar Draganov was recognized for Sneja and Franz.

Other festival awards included the Academia 21 prize for the documentary Sisyphuses, and the screenplay award for Petko Venedikov: Memories from Bulgarian 20th Century by Prof. Vera Naydenova. Debut awards in animation were given to Tanya Bozhinova for Next to You and Nevena Semova for Time Jar, while the Union of Bulgarian Filmmakers honored Asen Vladimirov for On the Occasion of an Assassination and the animated works The Boy Who Erased Kisses and Connected.  The special award of the Plovdiv City Hall went to the documentary Zlatyu's Dog and the animated film The Granny.

Following the ceremony, the two Golden Rhyton winners, The Cruel Path and Balconada, were screened for audiences. The festival, organized by the National Film Center and the Municipality of Plovdiv, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, is part of Plovdiv’s 2025 cultural calendar.