The winners of the 23rd edition of the Transilvania International Film Festival were announced Saturday evening during the Closing Gala at the National Theatre in Cluj-Napoca. The Transilvania Trophy, worth €10,000, was awarded to To a Land Unknown (UK), an intense drama about two Palestinian refugees living in Athens, caught between petty scams and the hope of a better life in...
Béla Tarr: “When you watch a film, you see the director laid bare and you see who they truly are. You can't hide.” Interview by Claudia Negrea Hungarian director Béla Tarr is being honored this year at TIFF, where eight of his feature films are being screened. He will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award during the Closing Gala on Sunday, June 22, at the Cluj-Napoca Natio...
A painful and profoundly timely film about the near-impossible breaking of cycles of violence, set against a backdrop of generalized rage. A Simple Accident manages to offer a deeply human perspective on a situation usually treated from a distant, geopolitical viewpoint: the repressive system in Iran. Shifting the focus from statistics and strategies to people confronting th...
Rainer Sarnet: The Estonian Auteur Who Never Repeats Himself Adapting novels, folklore, and spiritual self-help with irony and unmistakable flair, Rainer Sarnet is a filmmaker in constant pursuit of new cinematic formulas—modernizations, horror, even kung-fu monks. Always stranger than expected, always utterly absorbing. One of the most common critiques aimed at directors...
nspired by the Fântâna Albă massacre of 1941, Tudor Giurgiu’s new film, The Spruce Forest, explores a little-known but deeply relevant historical wound. Built around the testimony of a survivor and the voice of his wife, who was deported to Siberia, the film weaves together archive footage, fiction, and emotional memory into a visual discourse that questions the very notion of...
Why is it that when we interact romantically, we hear a dozen contradictory voices whispering instructions in our heads? Just because. The Italian romantic comedy is a genre that probably won’t ever die. There’s something about its unique mix of pathos, elegance, playful spirit, charming naïveté, and that unmistakably musical accent that continues to triumph over changing ti...
David Seko and Anca Pastramă One of the most influential and long-standing Romanian film critics, author of countless articles and landmark books on the history of Romanian cinema, Valerian Sava is set to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at TIFF 24. At the 24th edition of TIFF, you're receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award. What does this recognition mean to you?...
As every year, TIFF serves as a breeding ground for the latest Romanian films, whether features or shorts, documentaries or fiction, emerging names or established auteurs. But what trends and tendencies define this year's selection? Romanian Days kicks off today, marking one of the most energetic stretches of TIFF — because, after all, there’s no place like home for making f...
Béla Tarr, one of Europe's most important filmmakers, has arrived in Cluj-Napoca, where he will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF) Awards Gala. Until then, audiences will have the chance to meet him at the cinema and attend a special masterclass. Dozens of other guests are also expected in Cluj for the final days...
This week marks the third creative residency of the second edition of the Full Moon Creative Lab, an initiative by the Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF). Between June 15–19, twelve European screenwriters came together at Bethlen-Haller Castle in Transylvania, where they had the opportunity to refine their writing skills alongside international film industry exp...
On Tuesday, June 17, the winners of the Local Competition at the 23rd edition of the Transilvania International Film Festival were announced. This year’s jury included actress Nicoleta Hâncu, producer Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan, and director Florin Șerban. The “TIFF Local Competition 2025” Award went to Vlad Bîrza for his short film The Conclusion. The prize, worth €1,000, is of...
TIFFASHION – Young Designers Exhibition & Shop returns to the Transilvania International Film Festival in a multidisciplinary format that brings together fashion, niche perfume, contemporary jewelry, and design objects in a new and spectacular setting, right in the heart of Cluj-Napoca. This year’s event takes place in a historic building in Piața Unirii, currently undergoin...
There’s no room for Ion Glanetașu (former athlete, homeless alcoholic) and Fred Vasilescu (Glovo courier with a law degree) in pretty Florești, nope. It could be said that Radu Jude has almost single-handedly lifted contemporary Romanian cinema off the middle-class couches where it had been forgotten by the (now old) New Romanian Cinema. In his most recent example, t...