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The first edition of the unique Comedy Europe Film Festival (CEFF) which took place in Plovdiv, Bulgaria from 4th till 11th July 2021 closed with an award ceremony awarded by its international jury. Biljana Parvanovic (Serbia), Bogdan Krachun (Romania), Malin Krastev and Maya Bezhanska (Bulgaria) evaluated and judged 7 comedy feature films from Italy, Spain, Germany, Hungary, Serbia and Bulgaria, which were selected for the competition program of the festival.

"Best Feature Film" was awarded to the Italian comedy "Three Perfect Daughters" (È per il tuo bene) by director Rolando Ravello.

The Serbian film "Common Story" (Realna Priča) won the CEFF award in two categories: "Best Director" – Gordan Kicic, and "Best Supporting Performance" – for the young actress Nina Jankovic. Both winners sent personal video messages to the audience, the jury and the organizers of the festival, thanking for the recognition.

"Best Leading Performance" was awarded to Bulgarian actor Dimo ​​Alexiev for his role in the film "Danny. Legend. God." (Bulgaria, UK). The film’s director Yavor Petkov accepted on behalf of the actor, who was busy shooting, but the audience saw Dimo ​​himself in a live video link on the big cinema screen.

The "Audience Award" was determined by the vote of the festival spectators, who voted for the films during the 8 festival days. It went to Hungary for the comedy "Comrade Dracula" (Drakulics Elvitárs) by director Mark Bodzar. The choice was applauded by the audience in the hall when actress Lily Walters, who plays the leading role in the film, accepted the award and could not hide her strong emotions from the surprise of this great recognition.

Full list of the CEFF 2021 awards:
???? "Best Film" - "THREE PERFECT DAUGHTERS" /Italy/
???? "Best Director" - GORDAN KICIC - "True Story" /Serbia/
???? "Best Leading Performance" - DIMO ALEKSIEV - "Danny. Legend. God.” /Bulgaria, UK/
???? "Best Supporting Performance" - NINA JANKOVIC - "True History" / Serbia /
???? "Audience Award" - "Comrade Dracula" /Hungary/

The organizers of CEFF Plovdiv 2021 presented an additional symbolic award, winking at the guests from Germany. The producer of the film "Leif in Concert Vol. 2" Martin Lishke was awarded for the overall festival spirit, because of the emotion in the meetings with the audience and the theme of his film, which he presented at the festival.

The award statuettes for the first edition of CEFF were created by sculptors Eva Petkova and Sarkis Nersesyan.
Comedy Europe Film Festival aims to promote the importance of film comedy as an art form and an essential part of the European culture. The goal of the Festival is to recognize the highest achievements in European film comedy on a yearly basis.
Comedy Europe Film Festival is part of the Heritage Program of “Plovdiv - European Capital of Culture 2019”.