Support IN THE PALACE International Short Film Festival: Stop killing culture at the Palace, Balchik

Cultural Centre The Palace (Balchik, Bulgaria) is a state cultural institute established by the Ministry of Culture to create and promote cultural values, develop cultural and educational tourism, and preserve and promote cultural heritage.

The Cultural Centre has been collaborating with IN THE PALACE International Short Film Festival with the mission to promote cultural heritage through the means of visual arts. For 15 years the Festival has been one of the major and most significant events on the Institute’s Cultural Calendar. Over the years the Festival developed and increased its credibility - after having been awarded the European Festival Association Label in 2017, IN THE PALACE was officially recognized as qualifying short film festival by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2018.

In the past 5 years, organizing and running the Festival here at The Palace has progressively become more and more difficult. This happened after Ms Zheni Mihaylova was appointed Director of the Cultural Centre. The increasingly tense and hostile environment has been adversely affecting the quality of our cultural product and the perceptions of the Festival.

Communication with the Centre’s management and administration has been practically impossible. The tensions and problems have become visible for the Festival’s guests and contacts. We believe that these have also begun to affect the perceptions of the Palace as a cultural center and tourist destination. Extra complications and negative perceptions have been caused by blatant interference in the Festival’s program on behalf of the Cultural Centre. The Festival has been suffering from continual breach of the partnership agreement, combined with drastic lowering of the quality of services provided by the Centre in general. To the disadvantage of significant international events that bring international visibility and appreciation to The Palace and the town of Balchik, the Cultural Centre has been getting increasingly involved in activities such as weddings, private parties, and other events of low artistic and cultural quality.

As an international short film forum, one of its kind in this country, our mission and purpose is to promote and support contemporary audiovisual art and culture. We are not here to fight mediocrity and kitsch. This is a fight that we do not want to be involved in. We just want to do our job. This is why, and also because of unsurmountable stylistic differences, we IN THE PALACE International Short Film Festival, officially declare that we are putting the Festival on hold. We shall not allow 15 years of cultural success to be suffocated by avid demonstration of lack of competence, inadequate administrative capacity, and lack of good taste. We refuse to wage this war. With this statement IN THE PALACE International Sort Film Festival is officially and publicly asking for Ms Zheni Mihaylova’s resignation from the position of Director of State Cultural Institute The Palace. The Festival will cease to operate now and will resume the activities it initiated 15 years ago only when The Palace is again free from kitsch and vulgarity and after a new competent manager with a vision for the Centre’s adequate aesthetic development has been appointed.