This year Sofia MENAR Film Festival presented the best feature, documentary and short films of the countries of the Islamic world. It was held in January in Sofia and several other major Bulgarian cities at the same time.

The festival was supported by the embassies of the countries of the Middle East and North Africa: Algeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine. Most of them even organized formal dinners at the House of Cinema. Undoubtedly the Festival, organized by the association POZOR, has become the biggest cultural event of this kind in the Balkans.
That was proved by the full cinemas in the capital - Cinema House, Euro Cinema, Cultural Center G8, the Czech Centre, Dada Cultural Bar, Instituto Cervantes. The audience showed keen interest in the culture and traditions of the Islamic world. It was attracted by the names of the directors: Abbas Kiarostami, Majid Majidi, Mohsen Mahmalbaf, Umit Unal, Asghar Farhadi, Panahbarhoda Reza, Hany Abu-Assad, Bahman Ghobadi, Reza Mir-Karimi, Eran Riklis, Dervis Zaim, Huseyin Karabey, Susan Youssef, Nasser Hemir, Nadir Moknesh ...
The selection of films was very good. The spectators laughed heartily at the Lebanese comedy Baby and the Algerian-French Masquerade. They enjoyed the Indonesian film 12 Мinutes, the Moroccan Day and Night, the co-productions Adios, Carmen! and Let's Мake Peace After the Wedding. The quite serious and addressing strong social themes films like Horses of God , the Indonesian Father Sugia, the Egyptian The Room With the Mice, the Iranian Moradu, the Palestinian Omar and others made the audience think.
A special event of the festival was the premiere of one of the most popular Turkish films in the past year Do Not Seek Flaws in Me, winner of three awards at the prestigious festival in Antalya, including one for Best Picture - Golden Orange.