SMART7 Competition: the bravest European Cinema is on tour in seven film festivals across the continent

The SMART7 Competition returns to Transilvania International Film Festival (13 - 22 June 2025, Cluj-Napoca) for the third year with seven European works directed by emerging filmmakers whose voices stand out through authenticity and courage. Transilvania IFF is one of the founders of SMART7, a 7-film festival network that aims to develop the festival industry and create space for its most promising authors. The joint programme includes seven films produced in each of the SMART7 countries.

All titles will be shown in the seven festivals of the network: Vilnius IFF Kino Pavasaris (Lithuania), IndieLisboa IFF (Portugal), FILMADRID IFF (Spain), Transilvania IFF (Romania), New Horizons IFF (Poland), Reykjavik IFF (Iceland) and Thessaloniki IFF (Greece).

The Romanian entry Internal Zero is Eugen Jebeleanu’s second film after his acclaimed debut Poppy Field, a gay drama based on true events that won the Best Director and the Audience Award at the 2021 edition of Transilvania IFF. Internal Zero is based on a best-selling novel by Romanian author Lavinia Braniște and follows the life of Cristina, a mid-30s secretary navigating an alienating and hostile Bucharest. It was adapted for the screen by Ioana Moraru and stars Valentina Zaharia, Cendana Trifan, Cristina Drăghici and Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn’s Katia Pascariu. Jebeleanu explains: “This project continues my interest in portraying vulnerable people, as in my first film. Through non-conventional tools, Internal Zero employs a cross-disciplinary approach to cinema, exploring the dynamics of filmmaking and questioning the boundary between fact and fiction. I had a great team and three fabulous actresses, Cendana Trifan, Cristina Drăghici and Valentina Zaharia, who embody the different faces of my central hero, Cristina. This SMART7 selection makes me very happy, it will give our work a wide international exposure.”

Internal Zero will world premiere in March at the Vilnius International Film Festival in the SMART7 competition.

Spain brings Sandra Romero’s first film As Silence Passes By that opened last year in San Sebastian. Bursting with documentary-like authenticity, it’s a family drama about a young man returning to his family home amidst conflicts and feelings of guilt. Representing Portugal and awarded in Locarno and Goteborg, Hanami (d. Denise Fernandes) is also a debut work, resorting to magic and the mesmerizing setting of a volcanic island to chart the richly textured coming of age of a girl abandoned by her mother. In Drowning Dry, awarded for best acting and directing in Locarno, the Lithuanian Laurynas Bareiša follows the lives of two sisters and their families spending together a summer weekend that goes terribly wrong. From Iceland, Epilogues (d. Ari Alexander Ergis Magnússon) tells the story of an ageing grieving man that drinks his wife ashes – an almost surreal experience that takes him down memory lane. In Meat, the Greek Dimitris Nakos tackles an almost mythical feud between neighbours that turns into a tragedy, whereas the Polish Travel Essentials (d.Kamila Tarabura) delves into a compelling investigation full of twists and turns that uncovers the deeply buried secrets of a childhood trauma.