Stephan Komandarev's film "The Lessons of Blaga" received the Grand Jury Prize at the Rome Film Festival, which was held on October 18-29.

The jury was chaired by the Mexican actor and director, Gael Garcia Bernal.

The award was received at a ceremony at the 'Auditorium Parco Della Musica Ennio Morricone' by writer Simeon Ventsislavov. Director Stephan Komandarev is in Los Angeles, where he presents the film, which is a Bulgarian nomination for the Academy Awards.

Ventsislavov said that Rome and Italy have always been synonymous with cinema for him and thanked on behalf of the production for the award.

The Bulgarian Oscar nomination competed with 16 other films in the festival's main program. The jury awarded the best film award to "Pedagio" by Carolina Markowicz.

The award for best director went to Joachim Lafosse for "Un silence". The Monica Vitti Award (Best Actress) went to Italian actress Alba Rohrwacher for her role in Mi Fanno Male i Capelli, and the Vittorio Gassman Award went to Herbert Nordrum for his role in Hypnosen.

Blaga's Lessons won three awards at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in July - the Crystal Globe Grand Prize, the Best Actress Award, and the Ecumenical Jury Prize.

In early September, a national jury selected Komandarev's film for the Bulgarian nomination for the 96th Academy Awards./BTA/