Ralitza Petrova
Director, screenwriter Bulgaria

Ralitza Petrova (born in 1976 in Sofia, Bulgaria) studied cinema and video art at the University of the Arts London, followed by fiction directing at the UK’s National Film and Television School (NFTS). Her short films have received widespread acclaim on the international film festival circuit, including screenings at Cannes, Berlin, and Locarno, as well as at major art venues such as Tate Modern and the Centre Pompidou. In 2016, her debut feature film, GODLESS, premiered at the Locarno Film Festival, where it won four awards, including the Golden Leopard for Best Film. Since then, the film has won 27 awards and was nominated for the European Discovery 2017 – FIPRESCI Prize by the European Film Academy.

Ralitza Petrova was a 2019 fellow of the DAAD Artist-in-Berlin Program, where she developed her next feature film, LUST, a Bulgarian-Danish-Swedish co-production supported by the Bulgarian National Film Center, the Danish Film Institute, FilmiVast, and Eurimages. The film is currently in post-production in Denmark.

Ralitza Petrova is also a lecturer and script consultant at numerous international film labs and platforms, including LIM Less is More (Le Groupe Ouest – France, Lithuania, Norway, Scotland, Switzerland), Ventana CineMad (Spain), the Annual Selection of Le Groupe Ouest (France), PridexPower Lab (Bulgaria), and the Creative Academy “Rabbit Hole” (Bulgaria).