Dracula Film Festival is an annual contest which includes horror and supernatural films, SFs, thrillers and fantasy films. The festival has three sections: international feature films, international short films and Romanian short films.

‘This year’s movie selection of Dracula Film Festival proves that the film genre can be very diverse. And, this time, it is not addressed just to those who like horrors. For those who are afraid of horror films, we have four awesome fantasy comedies, including one musical, one vampire film made in Romania and a zombie movie, two films with some virgins that have some nights to remember and three films with very powerful, if not lethal, heroines who have even been tagged as  <<feminists>> by my colleague Alin Ludu Dumbravă. That’s why we invite to Dracula Film Festival also those who want to laugh – and why not, to sing – between two chills’ – Anca Grădinariu, Artistic Director at Dracula Film Festival.

The fifth edition of Dracula Film Festival will start on Wednesday, October 18, in Brașov. For five days, the public can watch the newest horror, fantasy and SF films, can attend conferences and workshops and can interact with some well-known filmmakers such as director Richard Stanley who is in Romania for the first time, and the famous actor Armand Assante, who is the special guest of this edition. He attends the event due to the screening of the horror fantasy film called The Wanderers. The festival features 25 short films this year, which compete for Little Dracula and Vladutz trophies.

Five Romanian short films compete for Vladutz trophy: Off Stage (dir. Andrei Huțuleac), Degetul (dir. Tudor Botezatu), VampirismuS (dir. Massimiliano Nardulli and Gabriele Saffioti), Doamna Ghica (dir. Cătălin Mesaru and Cătălin Moise) and The Last Dream for the Moon (dir. Octavian Repede).

The fifth edition of Dracula Film Festival will bring the national preview of the newest film directed by Darren Aronofsky called mother!. The film’s premiere took place recently at Venice Film Festival. The film, which the author said it was born out of a mixture of fury and helplessness, presents a story about a couple that struggles when uninvited guests arrive in their home. The guests will shake their peaceful existence. The film is a disturbing psychological thriller about love, devotion and sacrifice, which features Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem in the leading roles.

L’Amant double, the controversial film which reminds of Brian de Palma or Alfred Hitchcock, will close the fifth edition of Dracula Film Festival. A psychological drama cleverly disguised as an erotic thriller with Marine Vacth, Jérémie Renier and Jacqueline Bisset in the main roles.

Starting with the fourth edition, Dracula Film Festival created a new section called Dracula Digital which aims to promote cinema education among the teenagers, to give young people across the country the chance to get to know better the film industry, to discover and to grow new talents within the Romanian cinematography. This workshop is addressed to young people all over the country aged between 16 and 29, passionate about film and photography. This year, the participants had to make a horror, SF or fantasy film of maximum 3 minutes; the films were voted online. The one which had the most votes on 7^th of October 2017, at 23:59 and automatically entered in the final round is ‘Repeat’ by Andrei Toma. The jury selected other five films for the finals: ‘Poate nu există accidente’ by Claudiu Oprea, ‘6^th floor’ by SourMoon, ‘Jocul’ by Marius Călin, ‘The Celtic Cross’ by Andu Daniel Patache and ‘Pictura’ by Cătălin Oprea.

The final competition of Dracula Digital will take place during the festival, between 18 and 22 of October 2017 in Brașov.          Each one of the six teams that were selected will have to make a horror, SF, supernatural, thriller or fantastic film in Brașov, with a maximum length of 3 minutes, based on a theme chosen by the jury. The films will be filmed using the smart phones. The productions will be screened Sunday, October 22, and the winner will be selected by the jury.

We spoke with the PR Officer of Dracula Film Festival, Simona Rădoi, in order to recommend us other highlights of this edition, besides the films that open and close the festival. She told us about:

• The Wanderers, signed by Dragoș Buliga is a local indie vampire film with Armand Assante in the leading role, filmed in the most isolated and beautiful regions of our country and which has the potential to become a cult film.
• Alucard Day, an event dedicated to OTAKU culture. Reduta Cultural Center will host several related activities on Saturday, October 21: cosplay, boardgaming, activities dedicated to anime, manga and other DIY current trends from the Japanese culture.
• The cult director Richard Stanley comes for the first time in Romania at Dracula Film Festival. He will be present at the screening of Hardware (UK, 1990).
• Dracula Workshop 2017 will take place Friday, October 20, starting at 4:00 PM at Hot Café. The event brings together directors, founders and managers of festivals, who will discuss about how difficult it is to make this genre films in Europe. Participants will include: director Milan Todorovic, the Market Manager at Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Film – Romain Roll, the co-founder of FrightFest Horrot Chanel – Paul McEvoy, the director of the feature film Replace (included in the competition) – Norbert Keil and the director of the film The Night of the Virgin – Roberto San Sebastián.

Check the Dracula Film Festival website for more information about films and schedule.

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.