InterogaTIFF - The Competition Jury: We were surprised every day

Hours before deciding the winners for this years’ TIFF competition, the five members of the jury - director George Ovashvili, producer Juliette Lepoutre, actress Olimpia Melinte, programmer an co-director of Buenos Aires Laboratory, Violeta Bava, and the co-director of New Directors/New Films of the New York Film Festival, Dennis Lim were challenged to jury TIFF and Cluj. 

How was your stay in Cluj until now?

Juliette Lepoutre: I think we all loved it.

Dennis Lim: We had a great time.

Violeta Bava: The city, the energy, the people, the food, the party… amazing.

George Ovashvili: A good feeling and humanity.

How was it to be a jury member for TIFF 2015?

V.B.: Very tough, because it’s a big responsibility and it’s always difficult to give awards when you have such a selection.

How did you find this year’s selection?

D.L.: I think eclectic is the best way to describe it.

V.B.: We were surprised every day, the kind of films that we found in the selection were unexpected. And being surprised is always good. It’s not good to be predictable. It’s interesting that we saw all these films with odd couples and…

D.L.:  in very confined spaces too… with interesting thematic connections.

Is it more difficult to be in a jury for a competition for directors on their first or second features?

 D.L.: Usually it’s more exciting because there’s the potential for discovery.

Speaking about new directors, what do you think are the toughest challenges for young filmmakers, producers or actors in contemporary cinema?

Olimpia Melinte: The hardest thing is to get cast, to be given a part. Here in Romania is even harder because there are less movies made than in other countries. And another problem for actresses is that they don’t really write strong characters for women. There are mainly men, men, men. You see men everywhere.

V.B.: This actually leads us to a subject we discussed, that in the selection there is only one film by a woman, which is actually co-directed. So we are lacking women directors, also in the Romanian competition.

G.O.: I think that the hardest part now for directors is to get a good idea and a story. I think that young filmmakers have to try their best to learn their profession very well, because sometimes we see that even good ideas miss something in the knowledge of telling the story properly. That’s why they have to think more, to be themselves, not anyone else in this world.

J.L.: From the producer’s side it’s the same. It’s about making the right choice about the right project and the good idea with a good filmmaker. As producers we have to see a lot of films and read lots of scripts, and sometimes you make mistakes. It’s not easy to pick.

Where do you see TIFF in the film festival context?

D.L.: I think that Romanian cinema has been very important in the last 10 or 12 years, so having a large international film festival is very necessary. It’s important to have a Romanian competition and a show-case. So, on this level, I think it’s a great festival.

V.B.: Having lots of students in this city and the time of the year are a combination of factors that make this festival very special. And also having a competition for first and second feature films makes of TIFF the kind of festival you would want to organize and to be going to.

If it were to describe the festival in one word…

V.B.: TIFF.

J.L.: Sun and energy. Sun-energy…

D.L.:  Youthful.

G.O.: Palinka.

O.M.: Joy.

Interview by Daniel Iftene

Article published in AperiTIFF.