Record number of attendees at Transilvania IFF 2015! | TIFF

Record number of attendees at Transilvania IFF 2015!

10.06.2015 13:29

The 14th edition of Transilvania IFF brought a record in the history of the biggest and most important film festival in Romania: the 223 films from 60 countries, shown into about 400 screenings, had a record number of tickets sold, 73.000, with 10.000 more than in 2014 and without taking into account the great numbers attending the free open air screenings in Mănăștur, TIFF Campus or the Film Deposit, the master classes, workshops, exhibitions, the free NORWAVE screenings and concerts. All in all, over 110.000 people attended the festival. In addition, about 850 guests – filmmakers, producers, actors, industry professionals – and Romanian and foreign journalists attended the screenings and the special events.

This edition came to an end on June 7, in Unirii Square, with Trash, by the multiple Academy Award nominated Stephen Daldry, a screening attended by 2.189 viewers. This was the second biggest success of this edition, the champion being the opening film, Wild Tales, with 2.366 viewers and a national premiere set for June 12. The 3rd and 4th most viewed, also with over 2000 attendees, were The Treasure (Corneliu Porumboiu) and Why Me? (Tudor Giurgiu). The number of viewers attending the Unirii Square Open Air screenings was 133% bigger than last year.

The official website, www.tiff.ro, had 47.706 unique visitors, 90.510 visits and 637.012 views in the 10 days of the festival, which is with 20% more than last year. 92% of the users accessed the website from Romania, while the rest did it from Great Britain, Germany, USA and France, primarily. 43% of the visitors accessed the website for the first time ever. The official blog was accessed 24.179 times, some of the most popular posts being the live blog from the Closing Gala and two contests.

The Facebook page TransilvaniaIFF won 9.000 new likes, now adding up to almost 52.000. The posts reached 472.219 users and 55.300 of them interacted with the page. The users gave over 32.000 likes and posted 800 comments – meaning that both numbers doubled from last year. The festival videas had a reach of 42.111.

The official trailer of the festival reached 207.000 viewers on Facebook and was watched by 57.577 people. In addition, the Youtube channel was accessed by other 4.682 people, adding up to a grand total of 57.402 views. The Transilvania IFF app, developed by Greppy Systems, was downloaded by 3.224 users, who accessed it 45.994 times.

This year, 320 volunteers helped the organizers in all Transilvania IFF locations. Four of them were selected in the Volunteer Exchange program in Vilnius and Sarajevo. The oldest volunteer, 53, holds the record from last year and was part of the Mănăștur Open Air team.

The foreign guests: actressa Nastassja Kinski and actor Isaach de Bankolé, director George Ovashvili, producer Juliette Lepoutre, Film Society of Lincoln Center programmer Dennis Lim, the co-director of Buenos Aires International Film Festival BAFICI - Violeta Bava, the San Sebastian Film Festival selection committee member Roberto Cueto, the programme director of Chicago Film Festival Mimi Plauché, or the executive director of Eurimages, Roberto Olla, were impressed with the high standards of the Transilvania IFF selection and organization.

Violeta Bava: “Every day they would surprise us. I discovered unexpected films - it's very good to be surprised. A festival should not be predictable. And the fact that the city is populated by so many young people and students turns the festival into something very special”. Dennis Lim: “Romanian cinema has been very important for the past 10 years or so, thus I think such a festival is absolutely necessary. It's very important to have a national competition and an actual promotion of the Romanian film industry. Transilvania IFF is a wonderful festival”. Isaach de Bankolé was delighted with the city and the festival and expressed his wish to return.

The Industry programs were also appreciated. Rebecca Garrido, artistic director of Connecting Cottbus and one of the people behind the #FEEDback project, said: “The film market that you have here is wonderful. Many workshops, panels and a great selection of Romanian projects”. Martina Bleis (Berlinale Co-Production Market): “I'm a huge admirer of this festival and I've always told my friends to attend it for its great atmosphere”. Sirka Moller (Berlinale Talent Campus): “I love the Transilvania IFF spirit – it's my favorite summer festival”.

French musician Christine Ott, who gave the Tabu cine-concert, said: “it's my first time here. The program is very complex and it's hard to choose between so many films because there are many interesting things one shouldn't miss”.