The winners of the 20th edition of the Transilvania International Film Festival were announced on Saturday, July 31, at the TIFF 2021 Awards Gala held in Unirii Square in Cluj-Napoca in front of over 1500 spectators.

This year’s edition offered the public special events, as well as simultaneous screenings in 20 towns and places over the country and meetings with national and international guests.

Sergei Polunin, one of the greatest contemporary ballet dancers in the world, held a dance masterclass and participated in a Q&A session after the screening of the documentary Dancer (dir. Steven Cantor), an emotional foray into Polunin’s eventful life.

The festival program included an impressive selection of 45 Romanian productions – 32 features and 13 shorts. Three of the films selected at the Cannes Film Festival this year were presented in national premiere: Întregalde (dir. Radu Muntean, feature film), When Night Meets Dawn (dir. Andreea Borțun, short film) and Intercom 15 (dir. Andrei Epure, short film).

The jury of this edition, consisting of Mexican screenwriter and author Guillermo Arriaga, producer Katriel Schory, American director and producer Scott Coffey, Romanian actress Maria Popistașu, and Christian Jeune, director of the Film Department at the Cannes Film Festival, awarded the top prize, the Transilvania Trophy, in amount of 10,000 euro, to The Whaler Boy, the debut feature of Russian director Philipp Yuryev.

Here is the complete list of winners of the 20th edition of the Transilvania IFF:

Best Directing Award, in amount of 3,500 euro – Eugen Jebeleanu, for Poppy Field/ Câmp de maci

Special Jury Award, in amount of 1,500 euro, offered by HBO – Pebbles, directed by P.S. Vinothraj

Best Performance Award, in amount of 1,000 euro, offered by Conceptual Lab by Theo Nissim – Petra Martínez, for That Was Life (r. David Martín de los Santos)

Special Mention of the Jury – The Flood Won’t Come, directed by Marat Sargsyan

FIPRESCI Prize, offered by The International Federation of Film Critics for a film in the Romanian Days section – Unidentified, directed by Bogdan George Apetri

The Audience Award, offered by MasterCard – Poppy Field/ Câmp de maci by Eugen Jebeleanu

The Audience Award for the most popular Romanian film, in amount of 1,500 euro, offered by Dacin Sara – Wild Romania, directed by Dan Dinu, Cosmin Dumitrache

Excellence Award, offered by Mercedes-Benz – director Nae Caranfil

Lifetime Achievement Award, offered by Cemacon – actress Cezara Dafinescu

The Special Transilvania 20 Award – film critic Dan Făinaru

Romanian Days Award for Best Feature Film, in amount of 10,000 euro (in post-production services) offered by Cinelab Romania – Otto The Barbarian, directed by Ruxandra Ghițescu

Romanian Days Award for Best Debut, in amount of 1,000 euro, offered by Banca Transilvania – #dogpoopgirl, directed by Andrei Huțuleac

Romanian Days Award for Best Short Film, in amount of 5,000 euro (camera & electric & grip equipment services), offered by CutareFilm – When Night Meets Dawn, directed by Andreea Borțun

Special Mention of the Short Film Jury in the Romanian Days – Cradle, by Paul Mureșan

Melissa Antonescu

Writer, photographer and videographer. For Films in Frame she writes news about the latest happenings in the film world and brings to the readers' attention the productions that can be seen at the cinema. When she's not writing articles, she's photographing people in a small studio or searching for new cake recipes.