The traditional closing-night party saw revellers celebrating until breakfast.
Iranian director Dornaz Hajiha’s Like A Fish On The Moon won the Transilvania Trophy, the top prize of the international competition at the Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF) in Romania at a gala ceremony on Saturday June 17.
Hajiha’s debut feature premiered at in Karlovy Vary’s Proxima competition in 2022 and is being handled internationally by Hong Kong-based Asian Shadows It also picked up the best performance award for the lead actress Sepidar Tari ex aequo with Nacho Quesada, who plays the lead role in Andrew Sala’s France-Argentina film The Barbarians.
Iranian director Dornaz Hajiha’s Like A Fish On The Moon won the Transilvania Trophy, the top prize of the international competition at the Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF) in Romania at a gala ceremony on Saturday June 17.
Hajiha’s debut feature premiered at in Karlovy Vary’s Proxima competition in 2022 and is being handled internationally by Hong Kong-based Asian Shadows It also picked up the best performance award for the lead actress Sepidar Tari ex aequo with Nacho Quesada, who plays the lead role in Andrew Sala’s France-Argentina film The Barbarians.
- 6/19/2023
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
The traditional closing-night party saw revellers celebrating until breakfast.
Iranian director Dornaz Hajiha’s Like A Fish On The Moon won the Transilvania Trophy, the top prize of the international competition at the Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF) in Romania at a gala ceremony on Saturday June 17.
Hajiha’s debut feature premiered at in Karlovy Vary’s Proxima competition in 2022 and is being handled internationally by Hong Kong-based Asian Shadows It also picked up the best performance award for the lead actress Sepidar Tari ex aequo with Nacho Quesada, who plays the lead role in Andrew Sala’s France-Argentina film The Barbarians.
Iranian director Dornaz Hajiha’s Like A Fish On The Moon won the Transilvania Trophy, the top prize of the international competition at the Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF) in Romania at a gala ceremony on Saturday June 17.
Hajiha’s debut feature premiered at in Karlovy Vary’s Proxima competition in 2022 and is being handled internationally by Hong Kong-based Asian Shadows It also picked up the best performance award for the lead actress Sepidar Tari ex aequo with Nacho Quesada, who plays the lead role in Andrew Sala’s France-Argentina film The Barbarians.
- 6/19/2023
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
When “Avatar 2: Way of the Water” surged to the top of the Romanian box office earlier this year to become the highest-grossing film of all time, it marked an auspicious sign for a theatrical business still looking to recover from the doldrums of the coronavirus pandemic.
Yet local industry-watchers were even more encouraged to see a historic first in 2022, with two Romanian films cracking the top 10 at the year-end box office — a striking achievement for an industry that hasn’t historically been known for cranking out crowd-pleasing hits.
Topping the list was “Teambuilding,” a satirical workplace comedy from directors Matei Dima, Alex Coteț and Cosmin Nedelcu, which briefly reigned as the top-grossing film ever in Romania before being knocked from its perch by James Cameron’s blockbuster, which has raked in more than $8.3 million to date.
Meanwhile, first-time filmmaker Cristian Ilișuan’s “Mirciulică,” a comedy about a 30-year-old forced...
Yet local industry-watchers were even more encouraged to see a historic first in 2022, with two Romanian films cracking the top 10 at the year-end box office — a striking achievement for an industry that hasn’t historically been known for cranking out crowd-pleasing hits.
Topping the list was “Teambuilding,” a satirical workplace comedy from directors Matei Dima, Alex Coteț and Cosmin Nedelcu, which briefly reigned as the top-grossing film ever in Romania before being knocked from its perch by James Cameron’s blockbuster, which has raked in more than $8.3 million to date.
Meanwhile, first-time filmmaker Cristian Ilișuan’s “Mirciulică,” a comedy about a 30-year-old forced...
- 6/13/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
The 22nd edition of the Transilvania International Film Festival kicked off Friday night in the city of Cluj-Napoca with the international premiere of Northern Comfort, a comedy directed by Icelandic filmmaker Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson, and with a tribute to the film’s star, Timothy Spall.
The famed British character actor, known for his roles in Mike Leigh’s Topsy-Turvy and Mr. Turner, Cameron Crowe’s Vanilla Sky, Edward Zwick’s The Last Samurai, Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech and the Harry Potter films, received this year’s lifetime achievement award at the festival’s opening gala.
The Icelandic-uk-German co-production Northern Comfort is part of the massive Nordic Focus at the festival this year, with more than 40 films from Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Finland and Sweden, as well as live music performances and cine-concerts. Some of the Nordic highlights include Ruben Östlund’s 2022 Palm d’Or winner Triangle of Sadness, Lars von Trier...
The famed British character actor, known for his roles in Mike Leigh’s Topsy-Turvy and Mr. Turner, Cameron Crowe’s Vanilla Sky, Edward Zwick’s The Last Samurai, Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech and the Harry Potter films, received this year’s lifetime achievement award at the festival’s opening gala.
The Icelandic-uk-German co-production Northern Comfort is part of the massive Nordic Focus at the festival this year, with more than 40 films from Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Finland and Sweden, as well as live music performances and cine-concerts. Some of the Nordic highlights include Ruben Östlund’s 2022 Palm d’Or winner Triangle of Sadness, Lars von Trier...
- 6/10/2023
- by Stjepan Hundic
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
When push comes to shove, the Transilvania Intl. Film Festival has always prided itself on pushing the envelope, preferring to err on the side of provocation where other fests might choose to play it safe. That mentality has been encoded into the fest’s DNA since its beginnings in the tumultuous post-Communist era, when civil liberties and artistic freedom were still far from guaranteed in the newly democratic Romania.
Yet after a turbulent period of unprecedented disruption, brought on first by the coronavirus pandemic and then by the widespread humanitarian and economic crises spurred by Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine, even TIFF founder Tudor Giurgiu admits, “These were tough years.” The temptation might have been there to tinker with a formula that has made the festival such a success for the past two decades.
But for its 22nd edition, which runs June 9 – 18 in the picturesque medieval city of Cluj,...
Yet after a turbulent period of unprecedented disruption, brought on first by the coronavirus pandemic and then by the widespread humanitarian and economic crises spurred by Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine, even TIFF founder Tudor Giurgiu admits, “These were tough years.” The temptation might have been there to tinker with a formula that has made the festival such a success for the past two decades.
But for its 22nd edition, which runs June 9 – 18 in the picturesque medieval city of Cluj,...
- 6/9/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Bogdan George Apetri’s “Miracle” took home the top prize in the Romanian Days competition at the Transilvania Intl. Film Festival, which saw nine first-time directors among the 12 filmmakers competing in the annual showcase of domestic cinema.
It’s the first time such a formidable number of debuts have featured in the competition, offering a snapshot of what the fest’s artistic director Mihai Chirilov describes as a “balanced landscape” of new and established voices in Romania’s celebrated film industry.
It’s been nearly two decades since Cristi Puiu’s “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu” (2005) won the Un Certain Regard Award at the Cannes Film Festival, kickstarting what would come to be known as the Romanian New Wave. Two years later, Cristian Mungiu won the Palme d’Or for his abortion drama “4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days,” cementing the movement’s status and effectively punching the tickets of Mungiu, Puiu...
It’s the first time such a formidable number of debuts have featured in the competition, offering a snapshot of what the fest’s artistic director Mihai Chirilov describes as a “balanced landscape” of new and established voices in Romania’s celebrated film industry.
It’s been nearly two decades since Cristi Puiu’s “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu” (2005) won the Un Certain Regard Award at the Cannes Film Festival, kickstarting what would come to be known as the Romanian New Wave. Two years later, Cristian Mungiu won the Palme d’Or for his abortion drama “4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days,” cementing the movement’s status and effectively punching the tickets of Mungiu, Puiu...
- 6/26/2022
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk, whose feature debut “Pamfir” premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight section, and director and former political prisoner Oleh Sentsov (“Rhino”) are among the Ukrainian filmmakers who say they’re “distraught” by the inclusion of a Russian film in the main competition at the Transilvania Film Festival.
In a statement posted on Monday to the Facebook page for “Pamfir,” the filmmakers spoke out against the selection of Russian director Lado Kvataniya’s “The Execution” as one of 12 features competing for the Transilvania Trophy, criticizing the “illusion of cultural reconciliation” created by the festival’s decision and insisting that “art does not exist outside of politics.”
The filmmakers noted that Kvataniya’s psychological thriller was produced with the support of the state-backed Russian Film Fund as well as Kinoprime, the 100 million film fund bankrolled by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, who has been sanctioned by the U.K. and Europe.
“This film...
In a statement posted on Monday to the Facebook page for “Pamfir,” the filmmakers spoke out against the selection of Russian director Lado Kvataniya’s “The Execution” as one of 12 features competing for the Transilvania Trophy, criticizing the “illusion of cultural reconciliation” created by the festival’s decision and insisting that “art does not exist outside of politics.”
The filmmakers noted that Kvataniya’s psychological thriller was produced with the support of the state-backed Russian Film Fund as well as Kinoprime, the 100 million film fund bankrolled by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, who has been sanctioned by the U.K. and Europe.
“This film...
- 6/21/2022
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
After pulling off the near miraculous feat of mounting two in-person editions in the middle of a global pandemic, the organizing team of the Transilvania Film Festival had hoped for a return to normalcy this year – hopes that were quickly dashed when Russian troops invaded neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24.
The tone and tenor of this year’s event swiftly shifted gears, says TIFF founder Tudor Giurgiu, as festival leadership looked to strike a precarious balance. “The lives of many people have been turned upside-down. We need to be empathetic and pay attention to what’s happening over there and try to mirror through the festival program this tragedy which is happening in Ukraine,” Giurgiu tells Variety.
As TIFF kicks off its 21st edition, which runs June 17 – 26, the war in Ukraine will be reaching the conclusion of its fourth month, a period that has already dramatically upended life in its Eastern European neighbor.
The tone and tenor of this year’s event swiftly shifted gears, says TIFF founder Tudor Giurgiu, as festival leadership looked to strike a precarious balance. “The lives of many people have been turned upside-down. We need to be empathetic and pay attention to what’s happening over there and try to mirror through the festival program this tragedy which is happening in Ukraine,” Giurgiu tells Variety.
As TIFF kicks off its 21st edition, which runs June 17 – 26, the war in Ukraine will be reaching the conclusion of its fourth month, a period that has already dramatically upended life in its Eastern European neighbor.
- 6/16/2022
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
The challenge is how best to support local filmmakers and appeal to the wider international industry.
Four festival directors from Transilvania, IndieLisboa, Thessaloniki and New Horizons came together for the latest edition of ScreenDaily Talks - held in partnership this time with Transilvania Iff (TIFF) – to discuss how their festivals contribute to boosting their respective local (and regional) film industries and forging those all-important connections with the wider international film community.
Watch the session above.
“TIFF started as a strictly audience festival when it was launched in 2002,” recalled TIFF artistic director Mihai Chirilov. “That was our main priority because we...
Four festival directors from Transilvania, IndieLisboa, Thessaloniki and New Horizons came together for the latest edition of ScreenDaily Talks - held in partnership this time with Transilvania Iff (TIFF) – to discuss how their festivals contribute to boosting their respective local (and regional) film industries and forging those all-important connections with the wider international film community.
Watch the session above.
“TIFF started as a strictly audience festival when it was launched in 2002,” recalled TIFF artistic director Mihai Chirilov. “That was our main priority because we...
- 7/27/2021
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
TIFF artistic director Mihai Chirilov on how the festival supports the local industry.
The Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF) was co-founded by producer-director Tudor Giurgiu and film critic Mihai Chirilov in Romania’s second city of Cluj-Napoca in 2002. It rapidly became the nation’s most important film-related event and this year’s physical edition marks its 20th anniversary.
TIFF opens today (July 23) with a gala screening of Spanish director Cesc Gay’s comedy The People Upstairs on Unirii Square as part of a new collaboration with the San Sebastian film festival. The festival will run until August 1.
Artistic director Chirilov...
The Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF) was co-founded by producer-director Tudor Giurgiu and film critic Mihai Chirilov in Romania’s second city of Cluj-Napoca in 2002. It rapidly became the nation’s most important film-related event and this year’s physical edition marks its 20th anniversary.
TIFF opens today (July 23) with a gala screening of Spanish director Cesc Gay’s comedy The People Upstairs on Unirii Square as part of a new collaboration with the San Sebastian film festival. The festival will run until August 1.
Artistic director Chirilov...
- 7/23/2021
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Of all the international film festivals to roll out the red carpet this summer in what feels like a global industry reboot, few can fall back on past experience when it comes to the logistics of an in-person pandemic edition. But amid the wave of cancellations that all but wiped out the calendar year in 2020, the Transilvania Intl. Film Festival managed to pull off what few others could, relying on a host of open-air venues to successfully welcome moviegoers to the medieval city of Cluj.
One year later, for what in a different era might have been a splashy 20th anniversary edition, TIFF founder Tudor Giurgiu admits, “I thought this year would be easier.” Just days after confusion over Pcr tests and vaccine certificates reigned on the Croisette, however, Giurgiu and the TIFF organizing team have realized that as the coronavirus’ deadly Delta variant sweeps across the globe, a return...
One year later, for what in a different era might have been a splashy 20th anniversary edition, TIFF founder Tudor Giurgiu admits, “I thought this year would be easier.” Just days after confusion over Pcr tests and vaccine certificates reigned on the Croisette, however, Giurgiu and the TIFF organizing team have realized that as the coronavirus’ deadly Delta variant sweeps across the globe, a return...
- 7/22/2021
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
For a festival that prides itself on shining a spotlight on the domestic industry, the Transilvania Film Festival can point to a record number of Romanian films unspooling at this year’s 20th-anniversary edition, with 32 feature-length and 13 short films – including 13 world premieres – set to screen in the scenic medieval city of Cluj from July 23 – Aug. 1.
But despite the historic selection, which includes three films arriving fresh off of Cannes premieres, it’s an uneasy time for the local film industry. Funding from the Romanian Film Center (Cnc) ground to a halt last year as the coronavirus pandemic leveled the Romanian economy, and an industry that for two decades has produced a string of world cinema heavyweights has been left to wonder what the future has in store.
Speaking ahead of this year’s festival, producer and TIFF founder Tudor Giurgiu spoke candidly about the ostensibly prolific output, crediting “the fortunate...
But despite the historic selection, which includes three films arriving fresh off of Cannes premieres, it’s an uneasy time for the local film industry. Funding from the Romanian Film Center (Cnc) ground to a halt last year as the coronavirus pandemic leveled the Romanian economy, and an industry that for two decades has produced a string of world cinema heavyweights has been left to wonder what the future has in store.
Speaking ahead of this year’s festival, producer and TIFF founder Tudor Giurgiu spoke candidly about the ostensibly prolific output, crediting “the fortunate...
- 7/22/2021
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Festival directors from Romania, Poland, Portugal and Greece will talk about the role they play for the local and international industries.
The next episode in our ScreenDaily Talks webinar series will take place July 26 at 15:00 BST / 16:00 Cest and will explore how regional film festivals boost the independent industry.
Click here to register
The panel is in partnership with Transilvania International Film Festival.
They may not attract the star wattage of the A-list festivals but Europe’s big regional festivals are essential events for the film sector ecosystems in their cities and regions.
We talk to festival directors from Romania,...
The next episode in our ScreenDaily Talks webinar series will take place July 26 at 15:00 BST / 16:00 Cest and will explore how regional film festivals boost the independent industry.
Click here to register
The panel is in partnership with Transilvania International Film Festival.
They may not attract the star wattage of the A-list festivals but Europe’s big regional festivals are essential events for the film sector ecosystems in their cities and regions.
We talk to festival directors from Romania,...
- 7/19/2021
- by Wendy Mitchell
- ScreenDaily
Romanian festival sets opening film for in-person event.
Transilvania International Film Festival has selected Cesc Gay’s Spanish comedy The People Upstairs as the opening film of its 20th edition, marking a new collaboration with San Sebastian International Film Festival.
The opener is part of a Spanish focus planned for this year’s festival, which TIFF artistic director Mihai Chirilov said had been in the works for some time.
“We had been thinking for the last couple of years about having a more consistent focus on Spanish cinema and had been discussing with [Ssiff director] Jose Louis Rebordinos and [programmer] Roberto Cueto about...
Transilvania International Film Festival has selected Cesc Gay’s Spanish comedy The People Upstairs as the opening film of its 20th edition, marking a new collaboration with San Sebastian International Film Festival.
The opener is part of a Spanish focus planned for this year’s festival, which TIFF artistic director Mihai Chirilov said had been in the works for some time.
“We had been thinking for the last couple of years about having a more consistent focus on Spanish cinema and had been discussing with [Ssiff director] Jose Louis Rebordinos and [programmer] Roberto Cueto about...
- 5/24/2021
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Event was originally set to take place from May.
Romania’s Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF) is to host its 20th anniversary edition as an outdoor event in July, two months later than its traditional dates, due to the pandemic.
The festival was initially set to return to its usual period, running May 28 to June 6, after last year’s edition was pushed to August as a physical event, with socially-distanced outdoor screenings.
But as Romania works to limit the spread of Covid-19, TIFF organisers have pushed the dates to July 23 to August 1, and plan to repeat last year’s outdoor screening approach.
Romania’s Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF) is to host its 20th anniversary edition as an outdoor event in July, two months later than its traditional dates, due to the pandemic.
The festival was initially set to return to its usual period, running May 28 to June 6, after last year’s edition was pushed to August as a physical event, with socially-distanced outdoor screenings.
But as Romania works to limit the spread of Covid-19, TIFF organisers have pushed the dates to July 23 to August 1, and plan to repeat last year’s outdoor screening approach.
- 2/10/2021
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
This year’s gathering, which was held purely online, has handed out its most high-profile awards to the Spanish production directed by Fon Cortizo and to Daria Woszek’s Polish effort. As announced in a previous article (see the news), for its 2020 edition, the Gijón International Film Festival was held on the Ficx.TV, festhome and filmin platforms, and in addition, it split its official selection into three strands, dubbed Retueyos, Albar and Tierres en Trance. In Retueyos, the Best Film Award was split between 9 fugas by Galician helmer Fon Cortizo and Marygoround, the colouristic feature debut by Poland’s Daria Woszek, in accordance with the verdict of the jury, consisting of Pilar Monsell, Michael Zam and Mihai Chirilov. Furthermore, the Best Actor gong was conferred upon the lead in Poppy Field, Romanian thesp Conrad Mericoffer, while the Distribution Award...
- 11/30/2020
- Cineuropa - The Best of European Cinema
Attendance figures remained steady year-on-year despite virus crisis.
Australian comedy-drama Babyteeth was awarded the top prize at the 19th Transylvania International Film Festival, which went ahead as physical event with Covid-19 safety measures in place.
Scroll down for full list of winners
The film, which marks the debut feature of Australian theatre and TV director Shannon Murphy, won the Transilvania Trophy and €10,000. First seen in competition at Venice last year, the bittersweet comedy also picked up the audience award at the festival in the Romanian city of Cluj, which ran from July 31 to August 9.
TIFF marks the first major film...
Australian comedy-drama Babyteeth was awarded the top prize at the 19th Transylvania International Film Festival, which went ahead as physical event with Covid-19 safety measures in place.
Scroll down for full list of winners
The film, which marks the debut feature of Australian theatre and TV director Shannon Murphy, won the Transilvania Trophy and €10,000. First seen in competition at Venice last year, the bittersweet comedy also picked up the audience award at the festival in the Romanian city of Cluj, which ran from July 31 to August 9.
TIFF marks the first major film...
- 8/10/2020
- by 1100453¦Michael Rosser¦9¦
- ScreenDaily
Throughout the anxious weeks leading up to the opening night of the 19th Transilvania International Film Festival, as the coronavirus pandemic continued to spread across Romania, government officials began to impose a series of increasingly rigorous safety protocols that cast the festival’s viability in doubt. But the organizers insisted that the show would go one.
“When we realized that the [case] numbers were increasing…we immediately created a crisis committee” to determine how to create a safe movie-going environment, says TIFF founder Tudor Giurgiu. In the picturesque medieval city of Cluj, which plays host to the festival, a series of outdoor venues were marshaled into service—from open-air cinemas to public squares to a leafy courtyard at the local agricultural university. After ensuring the necessary health and hygiene measures were in place, the green light from the government finally came with just days to spare.
“I think we’ve been...
“When we realized that the [case] numbers were increasing…we immediately created a crisis committee” to determine how to create a safe movie-going environment, says TIFF founder Tudor Giurgiu. In the picturesque medieval city of Cluj, which plays host to the festival, a series of outdoor venues were marshaled into service—from open-air cinemas to public squares to a leafy courtyard at the local agricultural university. After ensuring the necessary health and hygiene measures were in place, the green light from the government finally came with just days to spare.
“I think we’ve been...
- 7/30/2020
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Eight movies are first features, and seven of them hail from European countries. Amid an unexpected amount of uncertainty, as indoor venues in Romania are unlikely to be available during the gathering, the Transilvania International Film Festival has announced the 12 titles set to compete for the festival’s awards. And one thing is certain: one of them will go home with the top award, the Transilvania Trophy. Artistic director Mihai Chirilov describes the movies as courageous and diverse, covering genres such as black comedy, thriller, erotic drama and experimental film. “Their common denominator is family dynamics and all the types of crises that are packaged within it,” Chirilov says in a press release. No Romanian films are in this year’s competition, even though the Romanian Days sidebar selection offers a record-breaking number of domestic productions (see the news). The European productions vying for the Transilvania Trophy...
The leading Romanian gathering has been forced to change its usual late-May meeting to a later date, while its VoD platform Tiff Unlimited offers the quarantined audience some alternative options. As has been announced by the festival organisers, the upcoming Transilvania International Film Festival, which was poised to unspool its 19th edition from 29 May-7 June in the historic capital of Transylvania, Cluj-Napoca, has been postponed owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. The organisers mention that they had to wait until now, having been mostly optimistic that the situation would be far better by the end of May, but the present circumstances both in Romania and around the world have forced them to make this tough decision. This is also the result of a string of cancellations and postponements of many festivals, while the film industry’s future seems extremely uncertain. We reached out to Mihai Chirilov, the artistic director of the.
Cluj, Romania–Alejandro Landes’ “Monos,” a survival thriller about a group of rebels set deep in the jungles of Colombia, won the top prize at the Transilvanian Intl. Film Festival on Saturday, with the jury praising the Sundance player “for its hypnotic power through its minimalist storytelling, committed cast, and unsentimental portrait of young people with guns.”
After a week of heavy rains in Cluj that swept across the cobbled streets of its historic city center and disrupted countless open-air screenings, a palpable air of relief seemed to settle over the red carpet Saturday evening, as guests climbed the steps of the National Theater at twilight accompanied by the strains of a string quartet.
Looking back at a week of screenings that continued the festival’s tradition of pushing the envelope with bold and provocative programming, Tiff artistic director Mihai Chirilov described from the podium the “experiment” behind the official...
After a week of heavy rains in Cluj that swept across the cobbled streets of its historic city center and disrupted countless open-air screenings, a palpable air of relief seemed to settle over the red carpet Saturday evening, as guests climbed the steps of the National Theater at twilight accompanied by the strains of a string quartet.
Looking back at a week of screenings that continued the festival’s tradition of pushing the envelope with bold and provocative programming, Tiff artistic director Mihai Chirilov described from the podium the “experiment” behind the official...
- 6/9/2019
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Cluj, Romania–More than a decade after a tide of critically acclaimed and award-winning features announced the arrival of the Romanian New Wave, the Transilvania Film Festival’s annual Romanian Days program continues to offer a vital and wide-ranging survey of the country’s dynamic film industry.
This year’s edition, which kicks off June 6, will present 15 features and 22 short films over the course of three days in Cluj, presenting what Tiff artistic director Mihai Chirilov calls “a recap of the best in Romanian cinema.”
A highlight this year will be the Romanian premiere of “The Whistlers,” which arrives in Cluj on the heels of its world premiere in Cannes Critics’ Week. Corneliu Poromboiu’s latest feature is a noir-inspired crime thriller about a Romanian police inspector who gets entangled in a high-stakes heist that takes him to the Spanish island of La Gomera. Chirilov describes it as “a genre film,...
This year’s edition, which kicks off June 6, will present 15 features and 22 short films over the course of three days in Cluj, presenting what Tiff artistic director Mihai Chirilov calls “a recap of the best in Romanian cinema.”
A highlight this year will be the Romanian premiere of “The Whistlers,” which arrives in Cluj on the heels of its world premiere in Cannes Critics’ Week. Corneliu Poromboiu’s latest feature is a noir-inspired crime thriller about a Romanian police inspector who gets entangled in a high-stakes heist that takes him to the Spanish island of La Gomera. Chirilov describes it as “a genre film,...
- 6/5/2019
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Cluj, Romania–Academy Award-winning writer-director Michel Gondry shared his thoughts on the creative process and the lessons he’s learned across his celebrated and wide-ranging career during a masterclass Saturday at the Transilvania Intl. Film Festival.
Gondry appeared in conversation with Tiff artistic director Mihai Chirilov, who introduced the French filmmaker by describing his own personal connection to the director’s work. Nearly 20 years ago, explained Chirilov, at the festival’s first edition, Gondry’s first movie, “Human Nature,” appeared in competition. “I don’t know if our invitation ever reached you,” Chirilov quipped.
Gondry recalled the early days of his career making music videos. “It was an age when you need to find a job, to pay the rent,” he said. “Doing this as a job was quite amazing.”
The director’s distinctive style and creative range were evident early on, as was his life-long preoccupation with animation. “Through the videos,...
Gondry appeared in conversation with Tiff artistic director Mihai Chirilov, who introduced the French filmmaker by describing his own personal connection to the director’s work. Nearly 20 years ago, explained Chirilov, at the festival’s first edition, Gondry’s first movie, “Human Nature,” appeared in competition. “I don’t know if our invitation ever reached you,” Chirilov quipped.
Gondry recalled the early days of his career making music videos. “It was an age when you need to find a job, to pay the rent,” he said. “Doing this as a job was quite amazing.”
The director’s distinctive style and creative range were evident early on, as was his life-long preoccupation with animation. “Through the videos,...
- 6/2/2019
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Cluj, Romania – The storm clouds that had spent the better part of the afternoon trundling across Transilvania couldn’t be kept at bay Friday night, though several hundred festival-goers – armed with umbrellas and ponchos – arrived for the opening of the Transilvania Intl. Film Festival hoping for the best.
“People are ready to go on. It’s unbelievable,” said Tiff artistic director Mihai Chirilov, as crowds continued to tramp down the soggy red carpet spread across Piata Unirii (Union Square). “They’re unstoppable.”
Nearby veteran director and festival founder Tudor Giurgiu worked a crowd sprinkled with Romanian stars of the big and small screen. A man dressed as the Pope posed for photos to commemorate the Pontiff’s contemporaneous visit to Romania, while dozens of corporate-branded balloons drifted past the Gothic spire of St. Michael’s Church. Between drags of his cigarette, Chirilov furiously worked his cell phone for the latest weather report.
“People are ready to go on. It’s unbelievable,” said Tiff artistic director Mihai Chirilov, as crowds continued to tramp down the soggy red carpet spread across Piata Unirii (Union Square). “They’re unstoppable.”
Nearby veteran director and festival founder Tudor Giurgiu worked a crowd sprinkled with Romanian stars of the big and small screen. A man dressed as the Pope posed for photos to commemorate the Pontiff’s contemporaneous visit to Romania, while dozens of corporate-branded balloons drifted past the Gothic spire of St. Michael’s Church. Between drags of his cigarette, Chirilov furiously worked his cell phone for the latest weather report.
- 5/31/2019
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Titles include Lukas Dhont’s Cannes title ‘Girl’.
The European Film Academy (Efa) has nominated six films for the European Discovery Fipresci prize, an award given to a first-time feature director.
The nominees include Lukas Dhont’s Girl, a drama about a young girl born in a boy’s body who dreams of being a ballerina. It premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes this year, winning the Caméra d’Or for best first feature as well as the Queer Palm.
This year’s Golden Bear winner from the Berlinale, Adina Pintilie’s Touch Me Not, is nominated, alongside Gustav Möller...
The European Film Academy (Efa) has nominated six films for the European Discovery Fipresci prize, an award given to a first-time feature director.
The nominees include Lukas Dhont’s Girl, a drama about a young girl born in a boy’s body who dreams of being a ballerina. It premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes this year, winning the Caméra d’Or for best first feature as well as the Queer Palm.
This year’s Golden Bear winner from the Berlinale, Adina Pintilie’s Touch Me Not, is nominated, alongside Gustav Möller...
- 10/9/2018
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Marcelo Martinessi’s “The Heiresses,” a Paraguayan-set story of sisterhood and entrapment, won the Transilvania Intl. Film Festival’s top prize Saturday, capping a week of honoring “films that dare,” in the words of its artistic chief Mihai Chirilov.
Crowds filled the ornate, 19th-century national theater in Cluj for the awards gala simulcast Saturday, marking the close of Romania’s top international art film fest, which this year focused on presenting fresh perspectives and provocative work in half a dozen sections, along with industry tech workshops, sessions on micro-budget filmmaking and popular screenings of archival films, often with live orchestral accompaniment.
The awards gala honored Hlynur Palmason with the director prize for Icelandic-Danish sibling rivalry story “Winter Brothers” while all three actors from U.K.-Spanish fertility triangle tale “Anchor and Hope,” Natalia Tena, Oona Chaplin and David Verdaguer, shared the best performance prize.
Asghar Yousefinejad’s “The Home,” an...
Crowds filled the ornate, 19th-century national theater in Cluj for the awards gala simulcast Saturday, marking the close of Romania’s top international art film fest, which this year focused on presenting fresh perspectives and provocative work in half a dozen sections, along with industry tech workshops, sessions on micro-budget filmmaking and popular screenings of archival films, often with live orchestral accompaniment.
The awards gala honored Hlynur Palmason with the director prize for Icelandic-Danish sibling rivalry story “Winter Brothers” while all three actors from U.K.-Spanish fertility triangle tale “Anchor and Hope,” Natalia Tena, Oona Chaplin and David Verdaguer, shared the best performance prize.
Asghar Yousefinejad’s “The Home,” an...
- 6/3/2018
- by Will Tizard
- Variety Film + TV
Although the majority of the audiences at the Transilvania Film Festival can scarcely remember communism, the appeal of films from the Soviet era is remarkable, say organizers of the Back in the Ussr.
Screening five Russian films from the 80s, including the 1980 foreign lingo Oscar winner “Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears,” the fest has drawn crowds of young and older audiences to cinemas in Cluj all week. Evgeny Gusyatinskiy, who selected the films along with Transilvania artistic director Mihai Chirilov, makes the case that much of the cinema from the Soviet Union at the time has lasting social and artistic merit.
Referring to the last generation of Russian filmmakers before the Iron Curtain came down, Gusyatinskiy says these creatives “managed to create what might be called a Soviet Hollywood.”
Exploring many of the same themes as 1980s directors such as John Hughes were taking on in the U.S.
Screening five Russian films from the 80s, including the 1980 foreign lingo Oscar winner “Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears,” the fest has drawn crowds of young and older audiences to cinemas in Cluj all week. Evgeny Gusyatinskiy, who selected the films along with Transilvania artistic director Mihai Chirilov, makes the case that much of the cinema from the Soviet Union at the time has lasting social and artistic merit.
Referring to the last generation of Russian filmmakers before the Iron Curtain came down, Gusyatinskiy says these creatives “managed to create what might be called a Soviet Hollywood.”
Exploring many of the same themes as 1980s directors such as John Hughes were taking on in the U.S.
- 5/31/2018
- by Will Tizard
- Variety Film + TV
In the fall of 2010, faced with cuts in public financing, Bulgarian filmmakers and other members of industry bodies swept across the capital, Sofia, in a wave of protests against austerity measures introduced by the right-wing ruling party. At the time, the country’s fledgling film industry was in a state of crisis. But eight years later, “the situation is completely different,” says Jana Karaivanova, executive director of the National Film Center. “Bulgarian filmmaking is thriving.”
A selection of contemporary Bulgarian cinema is on display this week at the Transilvania Intl. Film Festival, with the Focus Bulgaria sidebar spotlighting eight feature films and documentaries from the Eastern European nation. Beginning with Stephan Komandarev’s “Directions,” which world premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard last year, the program showcases the growing cinematic output of a country still building an industry from the ground up.
“It’s impossible not to notice that Bulgarian...
A selection of contemporary Bulgarian cinema is on display this week at the Transilvania Intl. Film Festival, with the Focus Bulgaria sidebar spotlighting eight feature films and documentaries from the Eastern European nation. Beginning with Stephan Komandarev’s “Directions,” which world premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard last year, the program showcases the growing cinematic output of a country still building an industry from the ground up.
“It’s impossible not to notice that Bulgarian...
- 5/31/2018
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
For a movement that announced itself with a proverbial flatline, with Cristi Puiu’s dry, sardonic, darkly comic “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu” (2005), the Romanian New Wave seems poised for a dramatic rebirth.
More than a decade after Puiu took home the Un Certain Regard Award, and Cristian Mungiu won the Palme d’Or in 2007 for his harrowing abortion drama, “4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days,” Romanian cinema is on the brink of a “new New Wave,” says Transilvania Intl. Film Festival artistic director Mihai Chirilov.
As the fest unspools its essential Romanian Days program, beginning on May 30, audiences are witnessing “first-time filmmakers that… are completely different than the aesthetic of the New Wave,” says Chirilov. Breaking from the muted palettes, flat compositions, and slow-burn realism of their predecessors, they’re bringing “a more than welcome freshness to what Romanian cinema is, and the idea of how Romanian cinema is perceived abroad.
More than a decade after Puiu took home the Un Certain Regard Award, and Cristian Mungiu won the Palme d’Or in 2007 for his harrowing abortion drama, “4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days,” Romanian cinema is on the brink of a “new New Wave,” says Transilvania Intl. Film Festival artistic director Mihai Chirilov.
As the fest unspools its essential Romanian Days program, beginning on May 30, audiences are witnessing “first-time filmmakers that… are completely different than the aesthetic of the New Wave,” says Chirilov. Breaking from the muted palettes, flat compositions, and slow-burn realism of their predecessors, they’re bringing “a more than welcome freshness to what Romanian cinema is, and the idea of how Romanian cinema is perceived abroad.
- 5/30/2018
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Cluj, Romania — The off-beat, the avant garde and the boundary-defying take center stage at the Transilvania Intl. Film Festival, which kicked off Friday night with a soggy start to the 17th edition.
Unspooling over 10 days in the lively medieval city of Cluj, a festival known for bold and provocative programming will feature 12 films in competition for the Transilvania Trophy, starting with fest opener “Foxtrot,” Israeli director Samuel Maoz’s Oscar-shortlisted portrait of a grieving family who lose their soldier son in the line of duty.
Though evening showers threatened to turn the night into a washout, the skies cleared over the historic Piata Unirii (Union Square), where Maoz’s controversial film, which won the Silver Lion in Venice last year, played to a damp but upbeat crowd.
With lightning flashing over what the Israeli helmer described as “the biggest screen and the biggest screening my film has ever had,” Maoz...
Unspooling over 10 days in the lively medieval city of Cluj, a festival known for bold and provocative programming will feature 12 films in competition for the Transilvania Trophy, starting with fest opener “Foxtrot,” Israeli director Samuel Maoz’s Oscar-shortlisted portrait of a grieving family who lose their soldier son in the line of duty.
Though evening showers threatened to turn the night into a washout, the skies cleared over the historic Piata Unirii (Union Square), where Maoz’s controversial film, which won the Silver Lion in Venice last year, played to a damp but upbeat crowd.
With lightning flashing over what the Israeli helmer described as “the biggest screen and the biggest screening my film has ever had,” Maoz...
- 5/25/2018
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
The influence on today’s generation of Romanian filmmakers of local auteur Lucian Pintilie, who died earlier this month, is so profound it’s difficult to chart. But, Transilvania Film Festival chief and leading Romanian filmmaker Tudor Giurgiu says, his legacy will be felt for many years, and a tribute is planned for the event’s closing ceremony.
“I was his 1st Ad [first assistant director] in 1995 when working on ‘Too Late,’ which was screened in 1996 Cannes main competition,” Giurgiu recalls. “I learned everything from him – it was like attending a second film school.”
Pintilie’s first feature, “Sunday at 6 O’Clock,” a tragedy about two young communist lovers on the run in World War II, won him international attention in 1966.
Because of the director’s extensive background in theater, Giurgiu says, “Pintilie was an absolute master when working with actors. It was mesmerizing to observe how he achieved impressive performances by forcing...
“I was his 1st Ad [first assistant director] in 1995 when working on ‘Too Late,’ which was screened in 1996 Cannes main competition,” Giurgiu recalls. “I learned everything from him – it was like attending a second film school.”
Pintilie’s first feature, “Sunday at 6 O’Clock,” a tragedy about two young communist lovers on the run in World War II, won him international attention in 1966.
Because of the director’s extensive background in theater, Giurgiu says, “Pintilie was an absolute master when working with actors. It was mesmerizing to observe how he achieved impressive performances by forcing...
- 5/23/2018
- by Will Tizard
- Variety Film + TV
The European Film Academy have announced the nominees of their annual European Discovery Award, presented as part of the European Film Awards to "a young and upcoming director for a first full-length feature film." This year’s nominations were determined by a committee comprised of Efa Board Members Helena Danielsson (Sweden) and Els Vandevorst (the Netherlands), Efa Members Pierre-Henri Deleau (France) and Jacob Neiiendam (Denmark), as well as Alin Tasciyan (Turkey), Paulo Portugal (Portugal), and Mihai Chirilov (Romania) as members of Fipresci, the International Federation of Film Critics. The nominees are: 10 Timer Til Paradis (Teddy Bear) Denmark, 92 min Directed By: Mads Matthiesen Written By: Mads Matthiesen & Martin Pieter Zandvliet Produced By: Morten Kjems Juhl Broken UK, 90 min Directed By: Rufus Norris Written By: Mark O’Rowe Produced By: Dixie Linder, Tally Garner, Nick Marston & Bill...
- 10/16/2012
- by Peter Knegt
- Indiewire
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