Having reached it’s 7th edition, The Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival (BIEFF) will take place this year between the 28th of March and the 2nd of April at Cinema Muzeul Țăranului and Cinema Elvira Popesco, showcasing the most innovative cinematic experiments produced in the last year.

This year’s edition brings a challenge for its audience, inviting us to exercise our sense of empathy with regard to our ancestors. The festival also proposes a debate on our preconceived ideas about the human body – its presentation, representation, and self-representation.
Many of the films shown in this year’s BIEFF focus on the idea of borders represented in forms such as: inland and out land, geographical versus socio-political/cultural, conceptual versus stylistic. This year’s edition invites the audience to a denial of barriers – between people but also barriers found within cinematic language.

The International Competition brings five programs, presenting five different issues present in our contemporary society. The competition invites the audience to debate and get involved in all of the themes proposed and presented below:

YOU ARE ANOTHER ME: On Exile and Shifting Borderscapes
THE POLITICS OF THE BODY: The Performative Self
SEARCHING FOR TRANSCENDE: Spirituality in the Digital Age
THE ALCHEMY OF THE FRAME: Deconstructing the Image
CUTTING THE CORD: Family Love and its Discontents

BIEFF’s long time partnerships with some of the biggest European film festivals are still on: Berlin International Film Festival in association with Arsenal Berlin will showcase some of the most provocative works within their avantgarde section – Berlinale Forum Expanded / NOSTALGIA FOR THE FEATURE: Manufactured Histories. Another partnership worth mentioning is the one with Rotterdam International Film Festival which will present political activism through visual art, within their themed programme PAINTING WITH HISTORY.

Like every year, BIEFF’s partnership with the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs (Directors’ Fortnight) of the Cannes Film Festival will bring another national premiere of one of the best French avant-garde film directors. Award winning short films will also be found in this year’s programme, from festivals such as Locarno, Clermont-Ferrand, Cannes.

See you at BIEFF between the 28th of March and the 2nd of April, at Cinema Muzeul Țăranului and Cinema Elvira Popesco!

Romina Banu

Photographer and editor; she co-founded Dissolved Magazine together with Melissa. For Films in Frame she gathers film and TV series recommendations for lazy weekends and she writes about interesting projects from the film industry. Other than that, she likes traveling, chilling with her cats and sleeping.