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Nina Roza Debuts in Berlinale Competition, Earns Strong Early Reviews

World sales are led by Best Friend Forever as the film pursues distribution beyond the festival circuit.

Overview

  • Geneviève Dulude-De Celles’ second narrative feature premiered in the Berlinale main competition to largely positive critical attention.
  • The story centers on a BulgarianCanadian curator returning to Bulgaria to evaluate an eight‑year‑old painter, a trip that unsettles his ideas about home and family.
  • Critics highlight Galin Stoev’s performance, the twin casting of Sofia and Ekaterina Stanina as Nina, Alexandre Nour Desjardins’s cinematography, and Joseph Marchand’s score drawing on 1970s Bulgarian estrada.
  • Reviews praise the film’s lyrical, meditative style and thematic focus on exile, fractured identity, memory, and the art world’s packaging of a child‑prodigy narrative, while noting an intentionally slow, elliptical pace.
  • An international co‑production from Canada, Bulgaria, Italy, and Belgium, the film’s world sales are handled by Best Friend Forever and it is seeking U.S. distribution.