The twelfth edition of Early Bird International Student Film Festival was held from 01 to 06 November 2016 in Sofia.
This year the President of the Jury is Ana-Maria Comănescu from Romania, who received the Early Bird Grand Award in 2015 for her film In the House. The other members of the jury are the director of Programming and Film production at BNT 1 Sevda Shishmanova, film critic Assoc. Prof. Lilia Nemchenko from Russia, the young directors Dimitar Sardjev and Hristo Simeonov.
The selection of Early Bird includes 162 feature, documentary, animation and experimental films by students from 42 countries, including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Zimbabwe.
With the opening of the festival was presented the exhibition Celebrity Report by the London based photographer Tsvetan Lilovski man with a glamorous hobby to photograph every world cinema premiere in London.
Special event in the program of the festival are the screenings young Bulgarian cinema Early Bird Takes Off. They will present the graduation film and the feature debut of young Bulgarian filmmakers whose way to the prestigious awards of the Bulgarian and international festivals started with Early Bird.