site.btaSylvie Vartan to Return to Bulgaria for CineLibri International Book-to-Film Festival

Sylvie Vartan is returning to Bulgaria in late October for the CineLibri International Book to Film Festival, the festival team reported on Tuesday. The grande dame of French music will present the festival's most prestigious award and will introduce the film Once Upon My Mother.

The singer bid farewell to her Bulgarian fans with two concerts in 2018, in Sofia and Varna. Since then, she has not made any public appearances on Bulgarian soil.

Vartan will arrive in Sofia on October 24 for the awards ceremony in Hall 1 of Sofia's National Palace of Culture, where an international jury headed by Danish actor Claes Bang will decide the winner of the CineLibri Best Literary Adaptation Award. During the ceremony, Vartan will present the honorary award for lifetime achievement and contribution to the art of cinema to another major international star, director Agnieszka Holland.

On October 25, Vartan will present a documentary film dedicated to her life and creative journey and directed by Georgi Toshev. On October 26, Vartan and Roland Perez will attend the official premiere of the comedy-drama Once Upon My Mother directed by Ken Scott.

Once Upon My Mother is a French-Canadian co-production that adapted Perez's autobiographical novel My Mother, God and Sylvie Vartan. The film stars Leila Bekhti, Jonathan Cohen, Josephine Japy, and Sylvie Vartan.

Vartan was born in Iskrets, 45 km from Sofia, but she and her family to France when she was 7. She was raised in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois. She was 17 when she recorded her first song with her brother, producer Eddie Vartan. While her name is most commonly associated with the ye-ye genre, her career encompasses performing rock, pop, jazz, acting roles in films and theatre productions.