MUMBAI: The 15th edition of the Sofia International Film Festival got underway on 4 March.

This year‘s festival will include 118 features, 24 documentaries and more than 70 shorts that are to be screened in its traditional sections, including International Competition for first and second feature films, The Big Five, New Bulgarian Cinema and the Balkan Competition.

Among the highlights of the International Program, in which films will compete for the Grand Prix, are the French/Swedish/Danish co-production Sounds of Noise, Polish Bar and the Bulgarian/German movie TILT.

Italian actress Claudia Cardinale is expected to be the festival‘s honoured guest who will collect a Lifetime Achievement in Cinema.Such awards are also to be handed out to Bulgarian actor Russi Chanev, French director Claude Lelouch and Georgian/French director Otar Iosseliani.

The opening night film will be The Black Swan by Darren Arnofski and The Edge by Russian director Aleksei Uchitel is to be screened at the festival‘s closing night.

The festival‘s Grand Prix and other awards are to be handed out at a closing ceremony scheduled on 13 March.