Transilvania IFF partners with Film Independent for Always Remember
The Transilvania International Film Festival announces a partnership with Film Independent, the American organization behind the Film Independent Spirit Awards and numerous other initiatives supporting and championing independent filmmaking. As part of this collaboration, Film Independent will present Always Remember in Transilvania, a global program created to raise public awareness about the Holocaust through cinema.
During the 25th edition of Transilvania IFF (June 12–21), two films selected by Film Independent will be screened at Cinema Victoria in Cluj-Napoca: Pepi Fandango (dir. Lucija Stojevic, Spain, 2024) and Orphan (Orfan, dir. László Nemes, Hungary, 2025). Admission is free!
“We believe in the power of stories to amplify diverse voices and experiences, and to cultivate empathy and understanding. Film, in particular, possesses a unique ability not only to entertain, but to help shift mindsets and attitudes. Recent surveys reveal a global trend of fading foundational knowledge about the Holocaust. In response, we have worked with key partners, communities, and independent filmmakers to create Always Remember, a special screening series designed to raise Holocaust awareness. The inaugural edition took place online in 2025. At a pivotal moment — when antisemitism continues to rise and the number of survivors still alive to share their experiences and the lessons of the Holocaust grows ever smaller — we are launching a second edition of the series in 2026: Always Remember, On the Road.” — Film Independent
A Film Independent delegation will be in Cluj-Napoca during the festival, and the program will also be presented at TIFF Timişoara in the autumn.
Pepi Fandango is a 2023 Spanish documentary directed by Lucija Stojević, following the moving story of Peter Perez (nicknamed “Pepi”), a Viennese Holocaust survivor, and his musician friend Alfred Pahola, as they embark on a road trip together from Vienna to southern Spain. Pepi’s goal is to compose a fandango — a flamenco-style song that has haunted him since childhood: as a boy, he and his Jewish family were interned at the Rivesaltes concentration camp in France, where he was housed in the same barracks as Spanish Roma children who sang fandangos to communicate with their parents on the other side of the dividing wall. The film has had a strong presence on the international festival circuit: it was selected for the Warsaw Film Festival 39, Crossing Europe (Linz), DocsBarcelona, and Dokumentale Berlin, received a Special Mention at the Festival de Málaga 27, the Panorama Award at DocsValència, and the Audience Award at Memorimage.
Orphan is the third feature film by Hungarian director László Nemes (Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film with Son of Saul, 2015). Orphan is a historical drama co-written by Nemes and Clara Royer, set in Budapest in 1957, in the aftermath of the failed uprising against the communist regime. The film follows Andor, a 12-year-old Jewish boy searching for his missing father, who instead discovers the truth about his mother’s survival during the Holocaust. The story is loosely inspired by Nemes’s father’s childhood memories of postwar Budapest. The film had its world premiere in the Official Competition of the 2025 Venice Film Festival.
In addition to the Film Independent Spirit Awards, the organization Film Independent has supported creative professionals for over 40 years through artist development programs, grants, and labs.
Further details about the TIFF.25 program will be announced soon. Festival passes are now on sale at tiff.ro/abonamente
