Special guests | TIFF 2023

GEOFFREY RUSH - Special guest at TIFF.22

Tickets are now on sale for Shine, the special screening which actor Geoffrey Rush will attend -> tiff.eventbook.ro

Australian actor Geoffrey Rush to receive the highest accolade awarded at the 22nd edition of Transilvania International Film Festival. With roles in some of the most awarded films of the last decades, Rush has been seen in popular film franchises including Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.  Rush will be celebrated in Cluj-Napoca, on June 17, 2023, where the actor is set to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Transilvania International Film Festival.

Known for his roles across Theater, Film and Television, Geoffrey Rush is one of Australia’s most acclaimed actors, having won the Academy Award for his role as the genius pianist in Shine. The actor will attend a special screening of Shine at Transilvania IFF.

Geoffrey Rush has been nominated for three other Academy Awards, in Shakespeare in Love, Quills, and The King’s Speech.

Rush won an Emmy Award for his starring role in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. Another notable television role for Rush was in the role of Albert Einstein in the television series Genius (2017), for which he received Emmy, SAG, and Golden Globe nominations.

Rush won the Tony Award in 2009, in the role of Monarch Berenger I, in Romanian-born playwright Eugen Ionescu’s absurdist play Exit The King, which earned Rush the Triple Crown of Acting (Oscar-Emmy-Tony.)  Rush is one of 24 people to have ever done so, along with the likes of Al Pacino, Helen Mirren, Jeremy Irons, Rita Moreno, and Viola Davis.  Additional accolades include two Golden Globes, three BAFTA Awards and four Screen Actors Guild Awards, among many others.

Rush is also part of the beloved Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, in the role of Captain Hector Barbossa; the Australian actor appears in all five films in the series.

Geoffrey Rush will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Transilvania IFF Closing Gala on June 17.

Rush is repped by CAA, Shanahan Management, and Rosenfield Media Group.

Photo credit: Andrew Macpherson

OLIVER STONE @ Nuclear Now and Natural Born Killers

Tickets are nov on sale for Nuclear Now and Natural Born Killers, the special screenings which Oliver Stone will attend.

Controversial and polarising, Oliver Stone is one of the most prominent Hollywood figures of the 1980s and 1990s. He has won three Oscars, two as director for Platoon (1986) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989), and one for the adapted screenplay of Midnight Express (1979).

"Oliver Stone has charted American history in a uniquely provocative and entertaining way" (David Parkinson, British Film Institute).

Often criticised for his choice of subjects, especially after the 2000s, when he made documentaries about the likes of Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez and JFK, Stone says he does not consider himself a political filmmaker:

" I consider my films first and foremost to be dramas about individuals in personal struggles and I consider myself to be a dramatist before I am a political filmmaker. I'm interested in alternative points of view. I think ultimately the problems of the planet are universal and that nationalism is a very destructive force. I also like anarchy in films."

His films are known for their powerful, often shocking imagery. Stone has never shied away from asking uncomfortable questions:

„My heroes were Luis Buñuel and Jean-Luc Godard. Breathless (1960) was one of the first pictures I really remember being marked by, because of the speed and energy. They say I'm unsubtle. But we need above all, a theatre that wakes us up: nerves and heart.”

Three productions that exemplify the great themes that have marked the filmmaker's career will be screened at Transilvania IFF: his most recent documentary, Nuclear Now (2022), "a must-see" (Variety) that premiered in Venice is an unprecedented investigation into the use of nuclear power as an alternative to fossil fuels. The screening of the documentary will be followed by a debate about nuclear energy in which Oliver Stone will participate alongside Romanian experts in the field. The program will include screenings of the visceral Natural Born Killers (1994), the story of two media-glorified killers based on a screenplay by Quentin Tarantino, and Born on the Fourth of July (1989), starring Tom Cruise as an American soldier in Vietnam, deeply scarred by the experience of war.

MICHEL FRANCO - Official Competition jury member | TIFF.22

Awarded at Cannes for After Lucia (2012), Chronic (2015) and April's Daughter (2017), and winner of the Silver Lion in Venice for the terrifying New Order (2020), Mexican Michel Franco will also be present at Transilvania IFF.22, where he will be part of the Official Competition Jury. Director, screenwriter, and producer, he has quickly established himself as one of the most original voices of contemporary Latin America:

"I no longer try to impose an aesthetic on a film. At the beginning of my career, I had more rules, but now I'm very relaxed. I had more cinematic references, and now I have none. I borrow more from books than films. In a way, the aesthetic of my films is very close to my way of being."

Since his 2009 debut Daniel & Ana, Franco has brought complex, often shocking stories to the screen: "I like to look at the dark side of human nature, and to do that I have to challenge my characters. I don't believe that when we are put to the test the best will come out of us." Part of the festival programme, viewers will have the opportunity to see the Mexican filmmaker's latest film, Sundown (2021), in which Tim Roth and Charlotte Gainsbourg play a couple faced with a life-threatening situation during their holiday in Mexico.

Michel Franco will host a masterclass for film students in Cluj-Napoca.

Photo credit: Ricardo Trabulsi

HORAȚIU MĂLĂELE - TIFF.22 Excellency Award

Actor, director, cartoonist, and writer, Horațiu Mălăele will receive the Excellency Award at the Transilvania IFF.22 Closing Gala on June 17 at the National Theatre in Cluj-Napoca.

During his visit to Transilvania IFF, Horațiu Mălăele will perform his show Sunt un orb / A Blind Man on Saturday, June 17, at Florin Piersic Cinema, starting 6:00 pm. TIFF.22 will host a special screening of the film Piciu/The Kid in the presence of Horațiu Mălăele.

I follow a principle learned and borrowed from Chaplin. If you produce a work of art that pleases, in equal measure, the elder and the child, the fool and the wise, the profane and the initiated, that is the supreme delight of the creator in their one-sided relationship with the viewer.

Over his round glasses, Horațiu Mălăele's gaze has become known to audiences from more than 60 films. Since his debut in 1974, with the lead role in Muntele ascuns / The Hidden Mountain (dir. Andrei Cătălin Băleanu), Mălăele has worked with some of the most important Romanian directors, including Geo Saizescu (Secretul lui Bachus/Bachus' Secret, 1984), Alexandru Tatos (Secretul armei secrete/The Secret of the Secret Weapon, 1988) and Ion Popescu Gopo (Maria Mirabela in Tranzistoria, 1989). In 1984 he played a teacher in Piciu/The Kid, the last film directed by Iosif Demian before leaving the country, based on a script written by Mircea Diaconu. The story of a group of schoolchildren on summer holiday attracted more than 1.5 million cinema-goers when it was released. The cast includes Victor Rebengiuc, Răzvan Vasilescu and Diana Lupescu.

In 1992, the role in Divorț… din dragoste/Divorce... out of Love (d. Andrei Blaier) of a young man forced to break up his marriage on the absurdity of the communist system, won him the acting prize at the Costinești Festival. In 1994 he was cast by Mircea Daneliuc in the comedy Această lehamite / Fed Up where he played Bebe, a soon to be father facing the death of his pregnant wife and the ambition of a doctor to keep his unborn child alive. He will work with Daneliuc again for Ambasadori, căutăm patrie/Ambassadors, Seek Country (2003). Of his recent roles, perhaps his best known and most loved by audiences is that of Ilie Moromete in Moromeții 2 (dir. Stere Gulea, 2018), for which he received a Gopo Award nomination. Horațiu Mălăele has also worked in international co-productions with directors Costa Gavras (Amen, 2001) and Robert Guédiguian (The Army of Crime, 2009).

As a film director, he authored Nunta mută/Silent Wedding (2008), Funeralii fericite/Happy Funerals (2012) and Luca (2020), all three with Adrian Lustig as screenwriter.

As a theatre actor, he has won an impressive number of awards. He has performed on stages in Piatra Neamț, Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Oradea, Brasov and Constanța, where he played roles in legendary shows such as Karamazovii/The Karamazovs, directed by Dan Micu, Acești îngeri triști/Those Sad Angels, directed by Mircea Cornișteanu, and Scapino, directed by Alexandru Dabija. Since 1982, he has been directing theatre productions, staging plays such as Teodor Mazilu's O sărbătoare princiară / A Princely Feast, Georges Faydeau's Puricele/The Flea and Paul Ioachim's Carlo contra Carlo/Carlo versus Carlo. His extremely humorous, intelligent one-man show Sunt un orb / A Blind Man, impressive in its virtuosity, was conceived as a monologue made up of poems, short prose, and memorable scenes from plays, and it has also been performed for Romanian communities abroad. He has played over 150 roles in television theatre.

A cartoonist and writer, Mălăele has exhibited some 3000 of his works in over 30 exhibitions and was editor-in-chief of Satirul. He has published two autobiographical books: Horațiu despre Mălăele (2008) and Rătăciri (2012).

The Transilvania IFF Excellency Award is presented by Mercedes-Benz.