Berlin International Film Festival 2001
on February 17, 2001

Also awarded First Prize
in the category of 
"Documenting the Jewish Experience"
at its premiere last summer at the
Jerusalem International Film Festival 2000

The Optimists tells the virtually unknown story of how the fifty thousand Jews living in Bulgaria survived the Holocaust despite intensive Nazi efforts to deport them to death camps.

Fifty thousand people didn't die because Bulgarian Christians and Muslims found ways to protect Jews from their would-be murderers. Individuals and organizations made a difference.

Ordinary people stood up for their Jewish friends and neighbors. The Church, certain Bulgarian Parliament members, Communists, trade unions, professional guilds, and the Jewish community itself all helped defeat the Nazis' orders for mass deportations and the Bulgarian government's attempts to comply with those orders.

Bulgaria's experience offers valuable insight into how we can mobilize to protect human rights and civil rights. It is not  a Jewish story only. It is a universal one, powerful in its ability to inform and inspire all audiences.

In awarding the Peace Prize to The Optimists, the Berlin jury explained: "We were extremely moved and fascinated by your film because of the chapter of history it tells (which is still not well known), because of the characters it portrays, and also by the film as such and by its filmic quality."