Transilvania IFF.25: Romanian Days
Transilvania IFF.25 brings 31 local productions to the Romanian Days competition — 11 feature films (most of them fiction debuts) and 20 short films competing for the section’s three major awards: Best Feature Film, Best Debut and Best Short Film. The feature films selected in the Romanian Days competition will also compete for the attention of the FIPRESCI jury, while the shorts are eligible for recognition from the Signis jury.
Outside the competition, the festival will screen some of the most acclaimed Romanian films of the past year, alongside titles — including Romanian co-productions — having their world or national premieres at the festival.
The Romanian Days feature film jury includes René Wolf, consultant and former head of acquisitions at Eye Filmmuseum Amsterdam, Anja Fröhner, Head of Programming at the Zurich Film Festival, and producer Marie Balducchi (Agat Films).
A River’s Gaze (dir. Andreea Borțun)
In A River’s Gaze, Andreea Borțun crafts the story of a single mother trying to build a better life for herself and her teenage son in a village in southern Romania. Filmed across all four seasons and balancing fiction with documentary observation, the film captures the tense relationship between Lavinia and Dani against the backdrop of a rural world shaped by migration, poverty and unspoken truths. The film is produced by actor Sebastian Stan and was also selected for the Smart7 competition.
The Circle (dir. Valeriu Andriuță)
Known for his performances in films by Cristian Mungiu and Sergei Loznitsa, Valeriu Andriuță makes his feature directorial debut with The Circle, a police thriller set in an isolated Moldovan village. The film follows a young investigator sent to examine what appears to be a routine hunting accident, but conversations with the locals and conflicting details soon turn the case into a dramatic race for the truth.
Something Familiar (dir. Rachel Taparjan)
Selected for the international competition at CPH:DOX, Something Familiar explores the fragile relationship between memory, family and belonging. In her documentary feature debut, British-Romanian filmmaker Rachel Taparjan sets out to help a young woman find her biological mother, only to embark on a journey into her own family’s past, uncovering old traumas waiting to be healed.
Back and Forth (dir. Cristian Bota)
In Back and Forth, actor Cristian Bota writes, directs and stars alongside Adrian Titieni in a story about the fragile and abrasive relationship between a father and his teenage son during a short trip abroad, as they struggle with impulsive personality clashes, simmering tensions and painful frustrations.
Lenin’s Pawn (dir. Dragoș Turea)
Blurring the line between documentary and fiction, Lenin’s Pawn draws much of its energy from the determination, charisma and eccentricity of actor Sergiu Voloc, whose life mission is to remove Lenin statues. Turea’s film explores, with irony and melancholy, how the Soviet past continues to shape the westward-looking present of the Republic of Moldova.
Y (dir. Maria Popistașu, Alex Baciu)
The central revelation in Y gradually raises questions about responsibility and moral inheritance. After the death of Ileana, a lawyer who built her fortune handling international adoption cases in the 1990s, Olga begins to uncover cracks in an apparently comfortable family history. Premiering at the Warsaw Film Festival, Y walks a fine line between principles and privilege with cynicism and sharp irony.
The Uncertainty Principle (dir. Sebastian Bădărău)
Using the tools of fully independent cinema, Sebastian Bădărău imagines in The Uncertainty Principle a world where the boundary between reality and possibility becomes increasingly unstable. Somewhere between scientific experiment and existential thriller, the film approaches the consequences of a groundbreaking discovery with playful energy and an almost punk irreverence, radically reshaping the characters’ relationship to time, truth, emotion and choice.
Don’t Let Me Die (dir. Andrei Epure)
Premiering internationally at the Locarno Film Festival, Don’t Let Me Die follows a woman (Cosmina Stratan) attempting to organise the funeral of her neighbour (Elina Löwensohn), found dead outside their apartment building. Starting from this disappearance, the film becomes a meditation on loneliness and the fragility of human relationships, unfolding through the strange labyrinth of bureaucracy in a poetic, eerie and absurd atmosphere.
Milk Teeth (dir. Mihai Mincan)
Premiering worldwide in Venice’s Orizzonti section, Milk Teeth sees Mihai Mincan exploring the world of childhood with remarkable sensuality and obsessive attention to detail, through a tense and unsettling story about the unexplained disappearance of a little girl during the final months of communism.
A Safe Place (dir. Cecilia Ștefănescu)
Writer and screenwriter Cecilia Ștefănescu makes her feature directorial debut with A Safe Place, following a group of friends vacationing on the Bulgarian seaside, where their seemingly relaxed dynamic slowly begins to crack following the arrival of a stranger and the disappearance of a child. Almost imperceptibly, the film transforms a familiar and intimate setting into unstable territory infiltrated by anxiety.
Catane (dir. Ioana Mischie)
Inspired by a true story, Catane humorously reconstructs the anecdotal tale of a village where locals devise an absurd yet ingenious way to avoid taxes — until inspectors arrive to investigate the anomalies in the system. Ioana Mischie’s feature debut won both Best Debut and Best Cinematography at the Gopo Awards.
Transilvania IFF.25 also presents a strong lineup of recent Romanian films and Romanian co-productions outside the competition. These include Sorella di Clausura, Ivana Mladenović’s absurd romantic comedy, alongside the latest films by Radu Jude — Dracula, the short film Shot Reverse Shot, and Diary of a Chambermaid, arriving in Cluj directly from Cannes.
Audiences will also get the chance to discover the two feature films that represented Romania at Berlinale: On Our Own (dir. Tudor Jurgiu) and Atlas of the Universe (dir. Paul Negoescu), the latter also screening within the miniTIFF children’s programme. Another highlight is Tudor Giurgiu’s Rotterdam-premiered comedy 3 Days in September, which will open the festival alongside an exclusive work-in-progress excerpt from the documentary NADIA.
The Romanian Days programme is completed by Adrian Sitaru’s experimental psychological thriller Blindsight, awarded Best Director in Tallinn, and the visually spectacular documentary Wild Delta (dir. Dan Dinu), made by the same team behind the box-office phenomenon Romania Wild.
Transilvania IFF.25 will also celebrate the 25th anniversary of Stuff and Dough (dir. Cristi Puiu) and host a complete retrospective dedicated to Corneliu Porumboiu, one of the Romanian filmmakers most closely linked to the history of the festival. A two-time winner of the Transilvania Trophy, Porumboiu will receive the Transilvania IFF.25 Anniversary Award and take part in a masterclass open to both audiences and industry professionals.
Full Romanian Days lineup:
Romanian Days – Competition
Feature Films
Don’t Let Me Die (dir. Andrei Epure)
A Safe Place (dir. Cecilia Ștefănescu)
A River’s Gaze (dir. Andreea Borțun)
Y (dir. Maria Popistașu, Alex Baciu)
The Uncertainty Principle (dir. Sebastian Bădărău)
The Circle (dir. Valeriu Andriuță)
Milk Teeth (dir. Mihai Mincan)
Catane (dir. Ioana Mischie)
Back and Forth (dir. Cristi Bota)
Lenin’s Pawn (dir. Dragoș Turea)
Something Familiar (dir. Rachel Taparjan)
Short Films
The Americans Are Coming! (dir. Valentin-Rareș Fogoroș)
May 10, 1945 (dir. Alberto Androne)
Cherry Master (dir. Cosmin Nicolae)
Tangent (dir. Cristi Păun)
Bittersuite (dir. Iris Reșit)
Mint Liquor (dir. Vlăduț Iosef)
Leaf (dir. Horațiu Carpiuc)
The future is in your hands, but why not lend it to the specialists? (dir. Alexandra Schinteie)
Dust (dir. Elena Butică)
Memory Pills (dir. Teodora Mihăilă, Agata Olteanu)
Edges (dir. Roberta Șerban)
Cristina Has Been Very Good (dir. Alin Boeru)
God, My Mother and I (dir. Ana Pop)
Blessed (dir. Voicu Mureșanu)
Geese-y Does It! (dir. Alina Rusu)
When We Are Together (dir. Alexia Drăgan)
The Grand Final (dir. Rareș Roșca)
The Visit (dir. Elias Ferchin Musuret)
Heaven, Be My Judge (dir. Octavian Șaramet)
County Captain (dir. Dan Panaet)
Out of Competition
Feature Films
Sorella di Clausura (dir. Ivana Mladenović)
On Our Own (dir. Tudor Jurgiu)
Dracula (dir. Radu Jude)
Blindsight (dir. Adrian Sitaru)
3 Days in September (dir. Tudor Giurgiu)
Atlas of the Universe (dir. Paul Negoescu)
Diary of a Chambermaid (dir. Radu Jude)
Wild Delta (dir. Dan Dinu)
Short Films
Shot Reverse Shot (dir. Radu Jude, Adrian Cioflâncă)
Index (dir. Radu Muntean)
How I Learned Not to Kill Myself (dir. Norbert Boda)
Do You Know Who I Am? (dir. Andreea Păduraru Hristescu)
Fairy Godmothers Inc. (dir. Matei Preda)
Auntie Lica the Hunchback (dir. Paul-Răzvan Macovei)
Someday, a Child (dir. Osta Marie-Rose)
The Couch (dir. Enxhi Rista)
Blue Hour (dir. Mircea Băluță, Eduard Burghelea)
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The Transilvania International Film Festival is organized by the Association for the Promotion of Romanian Film and the Transilvania Film Festival Association.
Supported by: the Ministry of Culture, the Romanian National Film Center, the Cluj-Napoca City Hall and Local Council, the Romanian Cultural Institute, Dacin Sara, UCIN, the Department for Interethnic Relations, the Florești Town Hall, and Creative Europe – MEDIA.
Under the aegis of: UNESCO City of Film
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