The 17th edition of Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF) happens this year between May 25th and June 3rd, at Cluj-Napoca.

As per usual, TIFF gets bigger and more complex year by year, with a schedule full of films that should not be missed, special events, cine-concerts and numerous other parties and activities.

TIFF.17 starts with a screening-event of Foxtrot– a fantastic film which already made history since its premiere at Venice Film Festival. The Israeli director Samuel Maoz will attend the opening gala.

Romanian Days is, for us, the most anticipated section of TIFF 2018, which features the most important Romanian film premieres of the year. 35 Romanian productions signed by local directors will be screened this year within the festival: 13 feature films and22 short films, some having their worldwide premiere, others already awarded by major international film festivals.

ADFR’s recommendations for Romanian Days – feature films are:

• Touch Me Not is the feature film debut of Adina Pintilie. A shocking exploration of intimacy and the human need of authentic contact, the film is on the fluid border between fiction, documentary and visual art.
• Charleston(dir. Andrei Crețulescu) a pop cocktail spiced up by black humour and melodrama, the film had its worldwide premiere at Locarno Film Festival.
• Paul Negoescu comes back at TIFF with his most recent film called The Story of a Summer Lover, a bitter-sweet comedy about the difficult situation that love can create, with Alexandru Papadopol in the leading role.
• Caisă, a documentary signed by Alex Mavrodineanu, is another world-wide premiere about a former boxing coach who decides to train again when he discovers a young talented boy.
• The grand winner of the 2018 GOPO Awards, One Step Behind the Seraphim, is the feature film debut of Daniel Sandu. The film is inspired by Daniel’s experiences in a theological seminary.
• Pororoca is another film included in this competition. The third feature film of Constantin Popescu is a story a father desperate to find his missing daughter.
• The role of Șerban Pavlu, as a father who sacrifices everything for the happiness of his child,in the film Meda or The Not so Bright Side of Things brought him the Best Actor Award at Sarajevo Film Festival.
• Story From Ferentari is a film based on the same-name novel written by Adrian Schiop, who is also one of the main characters of this unconventional love story directed by Ivana Mladenovic.

The section called Romania 100 – Classic Romanian films at TIFF 2018celebrates the Centenary of the Great Union with seven classic Romanian films, such as: Răscoala (1965, Mircea Mureșan), Gaudeamus Igitur (1965, Gheorghe Vitanidis), Șapte zile (1973, Mircea Veroiu). The admission to these films is free.

The nominations for the Transilvania Trophy feature nine strong debut films (among which two are signed by Romanian directors) and three other feature films which are the second ones of the authors’ careers. All the 12 films of the Official competition will have their national premiere at the 17^thedition of Transilvania Film Festival. The films can be found here.

Among the special sections included in the programme of TIFF.17, we have to mention the Ingmar Bergman Centennial, a wide retrospective dedicated to the legendary Swedish director and screenwriter Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007), which celebrates his 100^thanniversary. The event is organized by TIFF with the support of the Embassy of Sweden in Romania.

TIFF 2018 takes place between May 25 and June 3 at Cluj-Napoca. More details about the films, programmes, special screenings and tickets can be found on their official website.

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.