The anniversary edition of Romania’s largest film festival concluded on August 1st, after 10 days of absolute premieres, sold-out screenings, meetings with over 1000 guests, and over 100,000 film lovers who celebrated both a return to cinemas and 20 years of TIFF and turned this year’s edition in the largest event organized in the country since the pandemic began.
Over 93,000 tickets were sold to 17 outdoors, unconventional, and theatrical locations which showed a selection of 179 films from 47 countries. They were joined by the audience of free concerts, masterclasses, and industry events for a total of over 100,000 participants. The meetings with special guest Sergei Polunin were among the most attractive events, and his show at the Bánffy Castle in Bonțida established a box office record for this year’s edition.
The world premiere Romanian documentary Wild Romania (dir. Dan Dinu, Cosmin Dumitrache), received the Audience Award and had the largest number of viewers at this edition. The four screenings totaled over 3,500 viewers. The film will be released in cinemas in the fall by Transilvania Film. The top Romanian titles voted by TIFF audiences included Perfect Strangers (dir. Octavian Strunilă) and Holy Father (dir. Andrei Dăscălescu).
In the overall audience preferences the top spot was taken by Spanish comedy The People Upstairs (dir. Cesc Gay), which opened the festival and drew over 3,000 viewers at the five screenings in Cluj-Napoca, followed by the Danish production Another Round (dir. Thomas Vinterberg), which received a Best Foreign Film Oscar this years, and which was itself closely followed by Persian Lessons (dir. Vadim Perelman), the world premiere Perfect Strangers (dir. Octavian Strunilă), and the closing film The Best Years (dir. Gabriele Muccino).
TIFF’s anniversary edition boasted over 40 sold-out events, including the screenings of Final Report (dir. István Szabó), Supernova (dir. Harry Macqueen), Nowhere Special (dir. Uberto Pasolini), Spiral (dir. Cecilia Felmeri), New Order (dir. Michel Franco), Night of the Kings (dir. Philippe Lacôte), The Whaler Boy (dir. Philipp Yuryev) — winner of the Transilvania Trophy — alongside this year’s surprise film Annette (dir. Leos Carax). Tickets also sold out quickly for ciné-concerts like Malombra with live accompaniments by Simona Strungaru and Julie Roué, Fargo by Fragments, and The Student of Prague with Irina Margareta Nistor & CelloFun.
Romanian film was this year’s star, and audiences thronged to it. Films like Întregalde (dir. Radu Muntean), #dogpoopgirl (dir. Andrei Huțuleac), Occasional Spies (dir. Oana Giurgiu), The Father Who Moves Mountains (dir. Daniel Sandu), The Wind Seeker (dir. Mihai Sofronea), or The Wishing Tree: Childhood Memories (dir. Andrei Huțuleac) have brought a large number of votes and viewers.
The organizers of the festivals were joined by 370 volunteers with ages between 15-40, selected from among 540 applicants from all over the country.
The newest and most awarded films will be screened between August 5-8 at TIFF Sibiu and September 17-19 at at TIFF Oradea.
Videos representing this year’s edition can be watched on TIFF’s YouTube channel at: youtube.com/user/TIFFteam
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The Transilvania International Film Festival is organized by the Romanian Film Promotion Association and the Transilvania Film Festival Association. The 20th edition of the festival will take place between July 23-August 1 in full compliance with the necessary public health safety measures.
With support from: The Ministry of Culture, the National Centre of Cinematography, the Cluj-Napoca City and Local Council, the Romanian Cultural Institute, Dacin Sara, UCIN
Presented by: Banca Transilvania
Principal partner: Mastercard
Official car: Mercedes-Benz
Official coffee: Nespresso
Official insurer: Groupama
Sponsors: Tenaris Silcotub, LIDL, MOL România, Cemacon, Orange, IQOS, Carlsberg , Regina Maria, Aqua Carpatica, Domeniile Sâmburești, E.ON, Compania de Apa Somes, McDonald, Tazz by Emag, Conceptual Lab by Theo Nissim, JTI, Epson, Emerson, Farmec, Persil, Yonder, CSI Romania, Endpoint Protector by CoSoSys, Domeniile Averesti, Caii de la Letea, Petro Vaselo, Zetea
Partners: PMA, Lecom, AX Perpetuum, Promelek XXI, Luna Cleaning, Agressione, Ramada, Platinia
Official transporter: Tarom
Logistical partner: DHL
Digitizing partners: Halcyon Mobile, BIT Software
With support from: Trend Communication
Recommended by: Europa FM
Supported by: TVR, TVR Cluj
Media partners: TV5 Monde, Radio România Cultural, Agerpres, Harper's Bazaar, Beau Monde, Cosmopolitan, Femeia, BBC TopGear, Cinemagia, Business Review, Iqads.ro, Urban.ro, SpotMedia.ro, Cineuropa, Film New Europe, Films in Frame, Sinteza, Observator Cultural, Zile și nopți, Cinemap, Liternet, Aarc.ro, Munteanu
Local media partners: EBS Radio, Făclia, Infotrafic, Monitorul de Cluj, Maszol, Radio Cluj, Transilvania Reporter, Transindex, Cluj24, afaceri.news
Monitoring partner: mediaTRUST
