The Cinelibri 2026 festival will show 10 European films based on literary works in Burgas. The line-up includes titles starring Penélope Cruz, Monica Bellucci, Glenn Close, Isabelle Huppert, Diane Kruger and Daniel Brühl.

The selection includes films that won awards at major international festivals. Their shared themes are love, identity, memory, freedom and human choice. The programme brings together historical and psychological dramas, romance, comedies and philosophical parables.

Films with Bulgarian involvement include "She Who Remains", "Axis of Life" and "A Taxi to Heaven".

Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi direct "La Bola Negra", and Pedro Almodóvar is a co-producer. Three stories of three men in different eras unfold against the fight for LGBTQ+ rights. The events move through Spain from 1932 and 1937 to 2017, when an inheritance from an estranged grandfather sparks family conflict and brings hidden truths to light. Federico García Lorca links the characters. The film is based on his unfinished work of the same name and on the play "The Dark Stone" by Alberto Conejero. The cast includes Penélope Cruz, Glenn Close, Miguel Bernardeau and others. The film won a directing award at Cannes, and audiences at international festivals gave it their own prizes. It is not allowed for viewers under 16.

"She Who Remains" by Kostadin Bonev is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Rene Karabash, which is nominated for the 2026 International Booker Prize. Bekia is 16 when she is forcibly betrothed to a man from her village in the Albanian mountains. She breaks the engagement and, under patriarchal law, becomes a man named Matya. 15 years later she travels to Bulgaria to see her brother and her memories. The film is about freedom of choice, female identity and the price of tradition, and it was in the line-up of the Golden Rose festival.

The philosophical parable "Axis of Life" by Atanas Hristoskov is based on a book by Swami Tirtha. The teacher Vid and his three disciples, pilgrims, go through spiritual trials outside any particular time and place, and each character is a stage of inner growth. The cast includes Lars Simonsen, Alexander Alexiev, Vladimir Mihaylov and Clive Russell. The world premiere was at the International Film Festival of India in Goa.

In the psychological thriller "The Birthday Party", Nora, Thomas and their daughter Ida live on a secluded farm until three strangers ruin Nora's birthday. Léa Mysius shot it from a novel by Laurent Mauvignier, with Monica Bellucci, Hafsia Herzi, Benoît Magimel and Bastien Bouillon. The film is about fear, guilt and unspoken trauma. It was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes. It is not allowed for viewers under 16.

The comedy "All About Corinne" by Marc Fitoussi is about Corinne, an extra who dreams of a breakthrough in cinema and befriends the actress Sandrine Kiberlain. The cast includes Isabelle Huppert, Sandrine Kiberlain, Diane Kruger and Emmanuel Berco. The world premiere was in Locarno, and the film was in the official selection in Toronto.

The romantic drama "It Will Happen Tonight" by Nanni Moretti is based on short stories by Eshkol Nevo. Matteo and Greta meet on a tennis court in Rome while she is rushing to her wedding. Their love continues through the years, with partings and new meetings. The film is about chance, missed opportunities and love beyond time. The leads are Louis Garrel and Jasmine Trinca, and the film was nominated for the Golden Lion in Venice.

"Berlin Hero" by Wolfgang Becker and Achim von Borries is a comedy drama based on a novel by Maxim Leo. Micha runs a failing video rental shop when a journalist makes him out to be the organiser of the biggest mass escape from East Germany. He gets tangled in lies and half-truths. The film is about media fame and how historical heroes are made, with Charly Hübner, Christiane Paul and Daniel Brühl.

The black comedy "A Taxi to Heaven" by Todor Chapkanov and Ivan Nichev is based on the novella "Night Vigil" by Dimitar Dinev. A Bulgarian construction worker dies suddenly in Vienna, and his wife gathers his friends for a night vigil, where grief turns into absurdity. The film has three strands: the vigil, the staff of a funeral home and a criminal who crosses the border in a coffin. The cast includes Velislav Pavlov, Bashar Rahal, Dilyana Popova and others.

In "Fatherland" by Pawel Pawlikowski, Oscar winner for "Ida", Thomas Mann and his daughter Erika return in the summer of 1949 to Germany, which they left after the Nazis came to power. They travel through a country split by the Cold War. The film is about memory, guilt, belonging, exile and family conflict, with Sandra Hüller, Hanns Zischler, August Diehl and Joanna Kulig. It won the directing award at Cannes and is Poland's official entry for the Oscar for best international film.

"Violette" (water for the flowers) by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, director of "Amélie", is based on the world bestseller by Valérie Perrin, translated into more than 30 languages. Violette Toussaint keeps a cemetery in a small town in Burgundy until the arrival of a mysterious man takes her back to the past and to love. The cast includes Leïla Bekhti, Mélvil Poupaud, Matthias Schoenaerts and others.

All foreign-language films will be shown with Bulgarian subtitles.