„Наградата на публиката”: що е то?
People’s Choice Awards: What Is It?

Summary/Abstract: From ancient Olympic games to fairs and expos, competitive elements have been developing to gradually be transferred onto artistic events. No matter how often individual works and authors are said to be unrivalled, the latter are always tempted to be conferred a distinction on. Audiences are also happy to be told which picture is the best. The major problem is in that how to fairly count the votes of the audiences. There are different voting systems. From just ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to evaluation charts to casting ballot papers anonymously or by roll call, or online or by text messages. I deem vote by text messages to be the best of all. Voters are given two-hour time limit after the end of the successive film exhibition. Technically, it is not difficult to set a limit on the number of votes for a film by a single person. Still, competitions such as Eurovision showed that phone vote could be rigged either. Obviously, such surveys do not achieve representative samples and are definitely biased, as there are options and temptations to manipulate them. Still they are indicative of certain mindsets. A People’s Choice Award was given for the first time at the Bulgarian Feature Film Festival – Varna ‘1970. It was Farewell, Friends! that received the award. Over the following years, such prizes were given rather sporadically. Are audiences’ awards trustworthy? Do festival audiences differ from the common public? Why do or do not festival favourites enjoy success at cinema theatres? Are the pictures winning the European Audience Award and these that have received such prizes at Sofia Film Fest commercially successful across Bulgarian cinemas? The answers are not unambiguous.

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