The end of November saw two important international short film festivals take place in Romania.

The town of Tirgu Mures hosted the tenth edition of the Alter-Native International Short Film Festival between November 20 and 24. The festival screened fifty-seven productions in competition as well as a selection of popular Romanian and Hungarian feature films, including Gabor Herendi's A Kind Of America and Cristian Mungiu's Occident.

The six-member jury, German film critic Andreas Dosch, Yugoslavian director Vladimir Perovic, film critic Alex. Leo Serban and director-scriptwriter Cristi Puiu from Romania and film critics Gyorgy Baron and Balazs Varga from Hungary, awarded the festival's main prize to Chinese director Dai Yi's Little House.

One of the festival's favourites was Romanian filmmaker Robert Lakatos' The Kingdom Of Silence that was awarded with the Duna Workshop Prize

Local filmmaker Zsolt 'Kolok' Birtalan raised some controversy among the audience with his experimental film, [And Simple Truth Miscalled Simplicity], a visually modest production featuring opera arias. The jury awarded it the Prize of the Hungarian Film Laboratory.

Meanwhile, the 12th edition of the DaKINO International Film Festival was held in Bucharest between November 25 and 30. The festival was opened by the screening of Aki Kaurismaki's The Man Without A Past followed by a special concert by the Salvation Army Band featured in the film.

The feature film jury led by Romanian art critic Ecaterina Oproiu and the documentary film jury led by Romanian film critic and historian Bujor-Ion Ripeanu handed out a total of fifteen awards with the main prize, the DaKINO Grand Prix going to the best fictional film, a Greek production, director Ari Bafalouka's See No Evil. The competition programme featured sixty fictional productions, eleven animation films and thirty-five documentaries.

Beside the competition the festival also offered a number of special screenings, including the Romanian premiere of 11' 09' 01 and director Amos Gitai's Kedma as well as a screening of a brand new Romanian production, Radu Muntean's Fury.

The festival also screened the controversial Irreversible, which was presented to the public by its director Gaspar Noe and actor Albert Dupontel. Other filmmakers invited to the festival included 11' 09' 01's artistic producer Alain Brigand, Marie Jose Van Der Linden of Holland, Thibaut Staib and Jean Castejon of France, Vassilis Loules of Greece, Bane Milosevoc of Yugoslavia and German Berger of Spain. The festival was dedicated to a former Palme d'Or winner Romanian filmmaker, Ion Popescu-Gopo (1923-1989).

List of winners:

Alter-Native International Short Film Festival
Alter-Native Main Prize: Little House (dir.: Dai Yi, China)
In Memoriam Simo Sandor Prize (Best Student or First Film): The Pit (dir.: Mihai Bauman, Romania) and Member (dir.: David Brooks, USA)
Duna Workshop Prize: The Kingdom Of Silence (dir.: Robert Lakatos, Romania)
Prize of the Dakino Foundation: The Gods Love Those Silent Ones Who Clench Life Between Their Teeth (dir.: Pieter Eycken, Belgium)
Prize of Romanian National Office of Cinematography: Nasty Disease (dir.: Zsolt Juhasz, Sara Schilling and Peter Szalay, Hungary)
Prize of the Romanian Society of Radio Broadcasting: The World Of Little Red Riding Hood (dir.: Istvan Heim, Hungary)
Prize of the Hungarian Film Laboratory: [And Simple Truth Miscalled Simplicity] (dir.: Zsolt 'Kolok' Birtalan, Romania)
Prize of Minimum Party: Foreign Body (dir.: Gabor Ulrich, Hungary) and Mihai And Cristina - Life Stories (dir.: Cristian Nemescu, Romania)

DaKINO International Film Festiva
Grand Prix: See No Evil (dir.: Ari Bafalouka, Greece)

Best Documentary: Ohota Na Angheli (dir.: Andrei Osipov, Russia)
Best Direction,: Las Amigas (dir.: Lucia Sanchez, France)
Best Cinematography,: Salasul (dir.: Gheorghe Sfaiter, Romania)
Special Mention of the Jury,: Howrah, Howrah! (dir.: Till Passow, Germany-India)
Special Award of the Jury,: Anatomija Bola (dir.: Janko Baljak, Yugoslavia)
Best Direction, Fiction: The Island Of Peace (dir.: Ali Mohammed Ghasemi, Iran)
Best Cinematography, Fiction: Mecano (dir.: Florin Serban and Cristian Nemescu, Romania)
Best Screenplay, Fiction: Le Philantrope (dir.: Mathieu Zeitindjioglou, France)
Special Mention of the Jury, Fiction: J'Attendrais Le Suivant (dir.: Philippe Orreindy, France)
Special Award of the Jury, Fiction: Every Dog Has Its Day (Brigit Lehmann, Germany)
Best Animation Film: 1-U (dir.: Kiarang Alaei, Iran)
Special Mention of the Jury, Animation: Radio Umanak (dir.: Marie Jose Van Der Linden, Holland)
Special Prize of TVR: Salasul (dir.: Gheorghe Sfaiter, Romania)
Alter-Native Prize: Copy Shop (dir.: Virgil Widrich, Austria)