Transilvania IFF (May 31 – June 9) offers 10 days of special screenings, national and international premieres, workshops and masterclasses held by important industry guests, concerts, exhibitions and many more; 190 films from 53 countries; over 700 guests.
Pedro Almodóvar's comedy, Los amantes pasajeros/ I'm So Excited! opens this year's 12th edition of Transilvania International Film Festival. This "moral, oral and surreal, or unreal" – as described by its author – comedy will premiere in Romania on May 31, 8:45 PM, in Cluj-Napoca's Unirii Square. The film will be distributed in Romania by Independența Film.
After a series of "dark" melodramas such as Volver, Broken Embraces or The Skin I Live In, with I'm So Excited!, Pedro Almodóvar finally returns to comedy, the genre which made him a staple of 80s cinema. The story takes place on a plane from the moment the aircraft breaks down and all the way to its emergency landing, while the passengers on board, "stripped of iPhones, films, Internet and iPads, are damned to being themselves, surrounded by unfamiliar faces" says Almodovar.
The passengers are played by some of Spain's most famous actors: Javier Cámara, Cecilia Roth, Hugo Silva, Guillermo Toledo, Lola Dueñas, Raúl Arévalo – whom the audience saw at TIFF in films such as AzulOscuroCasiNegro, Gordos or Primos - or Blanca Suárez. Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas, two of Almodovar's most beloved actors, also cameo.
The legendary story of explorer Thor Heyerdahl and of his epic 1947 journey across the Pacific Ocean on a wooden balsa raft sets in motion Kon-Tiki (directed by Joachim Rønning, Espen Sandberg), which will close the festival on June 9, also in Ursus Open Air. The film was nominated this year for an Oscar and a Golden Globe in the "Best Foreign Picture" category.
Filmmakers Jiří Menzel, Stephen Frears and Romanian composer Adrian Enescu will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award, while actress Luminița Gheorghiu will receive the Excellence Award. Nik Powell, director of Great Britain's National Film and Television School, vice-president of the European Film Academy council and member in the BAFTA board, Pablo Berger, the director of Blancanieves (10 Goyas), David Lambert, writer/director of Hors les murs, actress Franziska Petri (Betrayal), producer Lynda Myles (The Commitments, The Snapper, The Van, Killing Me Softly), director of photography Ed Lachman (Ulrich Seidl's Paradise trilogy, Erin Brockovich, Sweet November), director Sebastian Lelio (Gloria, La Sagrada familia) and Cristi Puiu, member in the official jury and creator of the TIFF 2013 visual campaign, are some of the guests of honor of this edition.
Transilvania International Film Festival is organized by Romanian Film Promotion (APFR). The 12th edition takes place between May 31 and June 9 in Cluj-Napoca. It will be followed shortly after by TIFF Sibiu (June 19-23).
This year, TIFF launches the electronic system of ticket-checking, and those who buy tickets online will enter the auditoriums based on the printed proof. Tickets can be purchased on www.biletmaster.ro.
The full program and all the novelties of the 12th edition are available online, on www.tiff.ro. iPhones and smartphones (Android sau iOS) owners have access to the most important information (program, locations etc.) through a special free app, TIFF 2013.
