The Kinomania film festival opens its 40th edition tonight in Hall 1 of the National Palace of Culture (NDK) with the premiere of "Wild Horse Nine", the new film by Martin McDonagh, the festival team said. Screenings run until 29 November in Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas and Stara Zagora.

The film, by the director of Irish descent, stars John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits and Parker Posey. Malkovich won the Volpi Cup for best actor at the Venice film festival. Press around the world calls the Malkovich and Rockwell pairing "electrifying".

The story is set in Chile in 1973, during the coup against Salvador Allende, and moves to Easter Island, where a secret CIA operation is under way. According to the Kinomania team, McDonagh again relies on a huge star cast and, in his own style, questions how far authority figures can be trusted and how much weight they carry in today's world.

His four previous films, "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri", "In Bruges", "Seven Psychopaths" and "The Banshees of Inisherin", have almost 20 Oscar nominations and more than 30 BAFTA nominations between them.

The same evening, the audience will also see a short film about the history of Kinomania by Boris Misirkov and Georgi Bogdanov of Agitprop. It includes previously unseen footage and interviews about the start of the festival, which began four decades ago as "World Film Panorama".

On 16 November, the French Film Festival opens in Hall 1 of the NDK with "The Phantom of the Opera" by Alexandre Castagnetti. The director moves the story to the present day. The leads are Deva Cassel, the daughter of Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel, and Romain Duris.

"Minotaur" by Andrey Zvyagintsev premieres on 21 November. The political thriller won the Jury Grand Prize at Cannes and is France's entry for the Oscar for best international film. Critics describe it as a "merciless and hypnotic portrait of power".

It is followed in the same hall by "Fjord" by Cristian Mungiu, starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve. The film won the director his second Palme d'Or.

On 22 November, Hall 1 of the NDK hosts the only screening of "The Great Illusion", directed by Veselka Kuncheva, with set design by Marieta Golomehova.