Following our winners
The winners of Transilvania IFF finish the year in good shape, with more prizes in their pockets and, for some, with hopes for an Oscar or a European Film Academy award.
The Argentinian film El incendio / The Fire, by Juan Schnitman, winner of Transilvania Trophy, continued its road throughout the year with selections in festivals such as Film by the Sea IFF, Athens IFF, East End Film Festival.
2015 has been a great year for Icelandic director Grímur Hákonarson. Rams/ Hrútar, which won the Special Jury Award and Audience Award at Transilvania IFF, is in the books for an Oscar nomination in the Best Foreign Language Film category and also competes in the Best European Film category at EFA Awards. After Cannes (where it won the Un Certain Regard Prize) and Cluj, Rams went on winning the Golden Alexander Trophy at Thessaloniki FF, the Golden Spike and Best New Director trophies at Valladolid IFF, the Golden Eye at Zurich FF, the Krzysztof Kieslowski Award for Best Feature Film at Denver IFF, the Golden Starfish Award at Hamptons IFF or the Golden Tower at Palic FF. This dramedy about two estranged brothers trying to save their sheep was also screened in many other festivals, gathering good reviews and fans all over the world.
Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov toured the rest of the year with The Lesson / Urok, winner of Best Directing Award and Best Performance Award (Margita Gosheva) at Transilvania IFF. The film’s portfolio counts more than 30 festivals, from Toronto, San Sebastian and Sofia IFF to Duhok IFF, in Kurdistan, where it won New Talent Award, this September.
The most popular film from our entire selection, Operation Arctic, by Grethe Bøe, had a thrilling year. The adventures of the three Norwegian children reached younger audiences at Kiev Molodist IFF, Bombay IFF, Buster Copenhagen Int. Children’s Festival, Chicago International Children’s FF, Tel Aviv Children’s FF, Thessaloniki IFF, Vienna International Children's FF or Riga International Children's FF.
Corneliu Porumboiu, who took home the Romanian Days Award for Best Feature Film for Comoara, presented his film at some of the biggest events in the film industry, such as New York Film Festival, Toronto IFF, AFI Fest, Chicago IFF. He will also be present in NY this December for Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema. A retrospective was also dedicated to him at Madrid IFF.
Nicolae Constantin Tănase added three important prizes to the Romanian Days Award for Best Debut offered at Transilvania IFF for The World is Mine: Special Mention in East of West section at Karlovy Vary, Anonimul IFF Trophy and Cottbus Discovery Award. He was also selected in the competition at Namur IFF.
Ramona, by Andrei Crețulescu, continued to enjoy a great reception after winning the Romanian Days Award for Best Short Film (ex aequo with Black Friday by Roxana Stroe). It was the only Romanian short to be selected this year at Telluride IFF (Filmmakers of Tomorrow), New York Film Festival, Chicago IFF. Ramona was also presented at Curtas do Vila do Conde, Melbourne, Sarajevo, Encounters – Bristol FF, Helsinki IFF, Brest. Black Friday competed alongside Ramona at Festival Européen du Film Court de Brest and will go together to Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema, this December.
El bosque negro, by Paul Urkijo Alijo, concludes the year with more than 35 festivals in its portfolio. At Transilvania IFF, it won Best Film Award in the Shadows Shorts Competition, and its impressive carrier is related to genre festival, such as Zinema Zombie Fest 2015 (Colombia), CyBorg Film Festival or Festival Internacional de Cine Fantástico, Terror y Sci-Fi, Tlalpujahua – Mexico.
The two in development film projects that won the Transilvania Pitch Stop awards, The Soldiers and 1985, raised further interest among producers and industry programme coordinators. After winning the TPS Development Award, Ivana Mladenovic’s The Soldiers won the Cinelink Living Pictures Service Award at Sarajevo FF. The film is in development and will be produced by Hi Film Productions. Bogdan Mureşanu’s 1985 - winner of the TPS CoCo Award, offered by Connecting Cottbus - pitched his project this November in Cottbus– while both were presented in the Industry Days programme of the Locarno IFF.
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The 15th edition of Transilvania IFF will take place from May 27 to June 5, in Cluj-Napoca.
