BUCHAREST: FNE spoke with Romanian producer Iuliana Tarnovețchi, Managing Partner at Alien Films Entertainment, about the ongoing local cash rebate programme and her last project, Sony/Columbia Pictures action thriller Ghost Soldier starring Jim Caviezel, which was shot entirely in Romania in 2025 using a 95% Romanian crew.
Iuliana Tarnovețchi’s career in film began in the mid-1990s at Castel Film and ProTV, where she started as a production assistant and developed a hands-on understanding of the filmmaking process. In 2000, she joined MediaPro Pictures (CME Group), rising from Head of Production to Executive Producer and later Head of Content Development, working on both Romanian and international projects, including California Dreamin’ (Endless) by Cristian Nemescu (Un Certain Regard Award, Cannes 2007) as well as international titles such as Joyeux Noël, Callas Forever, Amen, Sweeney Todd, and Boudica, the Warrior Queen.
In 2012, she co-founded Alien Films Entertainment together with Oana Prata, producing award-winning features such as Eastern Business /Afacerea Est (Igor Cobileanski, Tallinn Black Nights IFF, 2016) and Otto the Barbarian / Otto Barbarul (Ruxandra Ghițescu, Sarajevo IFF 2020), alongside several festival-recognised short films.
As a service producer, she has worked with major studios and networks including Sony Pictures, BBC America, ITV UK, and EuropaCorp, on projects such as Killing Eve, A Spy Among Friends, Alex Rider, Kursk / The Command, and, most recently, Ghost Soldier (Sony Pictures/Columbia Pictures, 2025), starring Jim Caviezel and shot 100% in Romania.
Iuliana Tarnovețchi is a founding member and a board member of the Romanian Alliance of Film Producers, having previously served as its President for six years, and is an alumna of the EAVE Producers Workshop, Producers on the Move, and the Transatlantic Producers Workshop (TAP).
FNE: You were one of the producers who fought to see the cash rebate scheme re-launched, when it was discontinued in 2019. How is the cash rebate programme doing right now and what do you think is still to be improved?
Iuliana Tarnovețchi: It’s actually in a really good place right now. Since the re-launch in 2024, approximately 90 projects have been approved or are in the process of being approved, representing around 110 m EUR in local spend, and this summer the government approved a three-year extension, so agreements can now run through 2029. That kind of stability is exactly what we fought for.
Several countries have gone through programme interruptions like the one we faced, it’s not unique to Romania. What matters is how you come back from it, and Romania paid off all its outstanding debts from the previous program before re-launching.
What still matters most going forward is keeping this same continuity and predictability in how projects are reviewed and paid out, which, to be fair, is exactly what’s been happening lately. That consistency needs to stay a priority, not something we let slip once the pressure is off. And after what happened in 2019, trust doesn’t come back overnight, it’s built one paid project at a time.
FNE: How important is it for the Romanian cinema to have a reliable cash rebate programme?
Iuliana Tarnovețchi: It’s the difference between being a destination and being an afterthought. International productions choose countries the way they choose vendors: on reliability. Without the rebate, we lose the projects that bring in crews, equipment rental houses and postproduction houses, and training for the next generation of Romanian technicians.
FNE: Alien Films Entertainment is one of the companies that are currently showcased by Creative Romanian Film Makers at major film markets. How important are such initiatives for promoting the Romanian film industry?
Iuliana Tarnovețchi: Essential. Honestly, a rebate on paper doesn’t mean much if nobody outside Romania knows about it. You need people actually showing up — at Cannes, in LA, London, Paris, Toronto, Barcelona — putting a face and a track record in front of the people who greenlight these projects. That’s how a policy turns into an actual film shoot. And it’s not just producers doing this work — OFIC (Office for Film and Cultural Investments) representatives, Valentin Savu in particular, have been constantly promoting Romania internationally through every channel available to them, and that effort matters just as much as ours.
FNE: Tell us about Ghost Soldier. Where does it fit in your portfolio and how challenging was it in terms of production?
Iuliana Tarnovețchi: Ghost Soldier is a Sony/Columbia Pictures action thriller directed by William Eubank, starring Jim Caviezel, Olivia Thirlby, Garret Dillahunt and Shea Whigham, shot entirely in Romania in 2025. Alien Films Entertainment was the local service producer on the ground. It’s out in US theaters 6 November 2026.
It fits well within the kind of large-scale international productions we like to work on. The challenge was logistics at volume — sourcing and coordinating everything a big action production needs, locally, on studio timelines. That’s exactly the kind of project the rebate is designed to make possible.
FNE: You have many years of experience in servicing international projects. What is one piece of advice that you would give to somebody who is just starting doing it?
Iuliana Tarnovețchi: Learn to say “yes, and here’s how” instead of just “yes.” International clients don’t need a producer who agrees to everything — they need one who can tell them, honestly and fast, what’s realistic, what it costs, and what the alternative is. That credibility is worth more than any single deal.
