Irish filmmaker Brendan Canty’s debut feature Christy will open the 24th edition of the Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF) in Romania’s Cluj-Napoca on June 13.
The coming-of-age-story had its world premiere in the Berlinale’s Generation 14plus section where it won the section’s Grand Prix for best film.
The film will be launching TIFF’s new competitive section, Teen Spirit, dedicated to exploring youth culture through fiction and documentary films, with the winning film being decided by a jury made up of local teenagers aged 16 to 20.
The screening of Christy on Cluj-Napoca’s Unirii Square will be preceded by the presentation of an excellency award to the legendary Romanian film, TV and theatre actor Florin Piersic.
Films already confirmed for TIFF’s 2024 programme will include Dag Johan Haugerud’s trilogy Love, Sex and Golden Bear winner Dreams (Sex Love), Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths, two award-winners from Venice’s Orizzonti sidebar last year - Sarah Friedland’s debut Familiar Touch and Scandar Copti’s Happy Holidays, When The Light Breaks by Iceland’s Rúnar Rúnarsson, and Berlinale competition title Dreams by Michel Franco.
The line-up also includes Arantxa Echevarria’s thriller Undercover, Jiří Mádl’s Waves, which won the audience award in Karlovy Vary last year, Emmanuel Courcol’s The Marching Band, and Alireza Khatami’s thriller The Things You Kill which premiered at Sundance.
Pitch Stop project line-up
The 12th edition of TIFF’s international co-production platform Transilvania Pitch Stop (TPS) will present 10 projects currently at the stage of development and financing from first and second-time directors to an audience of producers, distributors, sales agents and film fund representatives.
This year’s selection includes four projects from Romanian filmmakers.
They include Lucia Chicoș’s debut fiction feature Horseshoe, based on a screenplay by Lavinia Braniște and produced by Velvet Moraru’s Icon Production, which centres on a 40-year-old primary schoolteacher who accidentally gets pregnant and then realises that her decision to have the baby is more complicated than she thought.
Also selected is At King’s Gate, the debut feature by the husband and wife team of scriptwriter-film critic Ilinca Straton and director Eugen Dediu. It will be pitched with producer Marian Crisan (director films including Warboy and The Campaign), through his production company Rova Film.
The TPS line-up will also feature Under The Crescent Moon, the debut feature of the Georgian-American filmmaker George Todria, and Hungarian filmmaker Lili Laura Tóth’s documentary Magda, described as “a story about a magically mysterious girl who is at war with both her own emotions and her environment.”
Held June 19-20, the TPS co-production platform is one of six sections of the RO Days industry platform which is now being coordinated by former producer Adrian Bîlă who succeeded Dumitrana Lupu as head of industry at the beginning of this year.
The other sections are the Full Moon Creative Lab, Transilvania Talent Lab, Drama Room, 10 For Film and a programme of closed Ssreenings targeted at international festival programmers, sales agents and distributors.
The projects selected for the 2024 edition of TPS are:
Under The Crescent Moon (Geo)
Dir: George Todria, prods George Todria (Archanda Films), Miguel Angel Jimenez (Kinoskopik Film Produktion)
Magda (Hun)
Dir: Lili Laura Tóth, prods: Viktória Dénes, Julianna Ugrin (Éclipse Film)
Forests Without Wolves (Republic of Moldova)
Prod: Ion Bobeică
At King’s Gate (Rom)
Dirs: Ilinca Straton, Eugen Dediu, prod: Marian Crisan (Rova Film)
Grandparent’s Paradise (Rom)
Dirs: by Alex Țibu, Șerban Racovițeanu, prods:Diana Paroiu, Maximilian Liford (Visual Walkabout)
Horseshoe (Rom)
Dir: Lucia Chicoș, prod: Velvet Moraru (Icon Production)
Kazimir (Rom)
Dir: Dorian Boguță, prod: Cristina Badea (Adenium Film)
Desire (Turkey)
Dir: Nuray Kayacan Sünbül, prods: Nuray Kayacan Sünbül (Ahmetk Film), Andrea Taschler (Mirage Film), George Ovashvili
Piatramare (Turkey)
Dir: Gökçe Erdem, prod: İpek Erden, Cagla Polat (Vayka Film)
Christmas Snow (Ukr)
Dir: Oleksandra Teslenko, prods: Serhii Demydov (FILM.UA Group), Oleksandra Teslenko (Contrabas Video Production)
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