– Home-grown films as well as titles from Greece and Serbia were also among the winners of the 25th-anniversary edition of the Romanian festival
Director Carlos Saiz accepting his award for Lionel (© Transilvania IFF/Chris Nemeş)
Having reached a rather respectable age with its 25th edition, the Transilvania International Film Festival came to a close on Saturday night at Cluj-Napoca’s National Theatre with a gala that crowned the Spanish-French family drama Lionel as the winner of the Transilvania Trophy. Accepting the award, director Carlos Saiz said: “This is a film about family and second chances, but above all, it is a film that brings to the forefront people whose stories rarely make it to the screen.”
The Best Director Award went to Greek filmmaker Konstantina Kotzamani for Titanic Ocean, while the Special Jury Award was presented to Goran Stanković’s Our Father. The Best Performance Award was given collectively to the cast of Muriel d’Ansembourg‘s first feature, Truly Naked – Caolán O’Gorman, Andrew Howard, Alessa Savage and Safiya Benaddi – for a film exploring vulnerability, intimacy and the ways people try to reconnect with one another.
In the Romanian Days competition, the Best Feature Award went to Y by Maria Popistașu and Alexandru Baciu, while Cristian Bota’s Back and Forth received the Best Debut Award. The winner of the What’s Up, Doc? competition was Vladlena Sandu’s Memory, a hybrid documentary revisiting the filmmaker’s childhood memories of the Chechen War.
The audience chose Gábor Holtai’s Feels Like Home as the recipient of the Audience Award, while Dan Dinu’s impressive documentary Wild Delta received a similar award as the most popular Romanian film at the festival.
Here is the complete list of awards presented at the 25th edition of the gathering:
Main competition
Transilvania Trophy
Lionel – Carlos Saiz (Spain/France)
Best Director
Konstantina Kotzamani – Titanic Ocean (Greece/Germany/Romania/France/Spain)
Special Jury Award
Our Father – Goran Stanković (Serbia/Croatia/Italy/North Macedonia/Montenegro/Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Best Performance
Caolán O’Gorman, Andrew Howard, Alessa Savage, Safiya Benaddi – Truly Naked (Netherlands/Belgium/France)
Audience Award
Feels Like Home – Gábor Holtai (Hungary)
What’s Up, Doc?
Best Documentary
Memory – Vladlena Sandu (France/Netherlands)
Special Mention of the Jury
Variations on a Theme – Jason Jacobs, Devon Delmar (South Africa/Netherlands/Qatar)
Romanian Days
Best Feature
Y – Maria Popistașu, Alex Baciu (Romania)
Best First Feature
Back and Forth – Cristian Bota (Romania)
Romanian Days Special Mention
The Circle – Valeriu Andriuţă (Romania/Moldova)
Romanian Days Audience Award
Wild Delta – Dan Dinu (Romania)
Other awards
Best Short Film
County Captain – Dan Panaet (Romania)
SIGNIS Award (given to a short film in the Romanian Days short film competition)
Edges – Roberta Şerban (Romania)
FIPRESCI Award (given to a film in the Romanian Days competition)
Don’t Let Me Die – Andrei Epure (Romania/Bulgaria/France)
Ecumenical Jury Award
Truly Naked – Muriel d’Ansembourg
Transilvania IFF.25 Trophy
Corneliu Porumboiu
Janovics Jenő Award
Roman Gutek
Excellence Award
Anda Onesa
Lifetime Achievement Award
Ornella Muti
