Bulgarian filmmaker Martin Iliev’s Fathers won the lead prize at the 2026 edition of Transilvania Pitch Stop (TPS), part of the RO Days industry platform at the Transilvania International Film Festival.
Co-written by fellow director Konstantin Bojanov, it is about a road trip taken by a son and his ageing father across a wintry Bulgaria It won Chainsaw Europe’s Postproduction Award worth €25,000 in postproduction services.
Postproduction house Avanpost’s €5,000 TPS development award went to Ukrainian director Philip Sotnychenko’s second feature, Times New Roman, about an artist going through a midlife crisis while trying to find himself within the reality of the full-scale war waged by Russia.
This year’s €1,500 cash prize sponsored by the National Centre of Cinematography in Moldova was presented to Adrian Silisteanu’s drama Another Story About My Son, his first full-length feature film as a director after working as a DoP on more than 30 TV series and films across Europe and the Middle East.
A new award for postproduction services sponsored by the Iasi-based outfit Luno was won by Matei Lucaci-Grünberg’s Decebal’s Wedding, produced by Gabi Suciu of Atelier de Film.
For the second year running, the Connecting Cottbus East-West co-production market gave out its East-West Emerging Producers award to one of the Romanian or Moldovan producers pitching a project at TPS.
This year’s winner, Mara Cracaleanu of the UK-Romanian-based Melancholia Film, can now take part in the next cocoLAB programme held in Cottbus during Connecting Cottbus at the beginning of November.
She was pitching Octavian Saramet’s debut feature Sun Offspring, a combination of folk and psychological horror with found footage, which is participating in the European Genre Forum training programme.
Two of the projects presented in the new Works in Progress showcase - Cristi Iftime’s The Fear’s Artist and Marius Olteanu’s We Won’t Grow Old Together - were presented with the €30,000 Transilvania HBO Award.
This new prize offers a direct licensing agreement with HBO, which may include acquisition and/or financing for the completed project as well as a guaranteed broadcast window.
Industry feedback
TIFF’s new head of industry Ami Geger told Screen 180 one-to-one meetings were organised for the 10 TPS projects.
She said the projects attracting the most one-to-one meeting requests had been for Sun Offspring, Times New Roman, Decebal’s Wedding, as well as main industry winner Fathers.
Producer Saar Yogev of Black Sheep Productions/Electric Sheep said this year’s pitches were “clear and straight to the point, and, combined with a strong, clear, personal, and creative stance from the filmmaker, I found it an outstanding session this year”.
One of TIFF’s regular attendees, sales agent Arnaud Chevallier of Paris-based B-Rated International, praised the new Works in Progress format for “providing more opportunities to discover new talent”.
The showcase of seven titles had included debut features by emerging filmmakers including Dan Radu Mihai, Ligia Ciornei and the brothers Anton and Damian Groves.
“Overall, TIFF remains an excellent place to scout emerging Romanian filmmakers, with plenty of fresh voices to keep an eye on,” Chevallier said.
Film Republic’s Xavier Henry-Rashid said: “TIFF is a great opportunity to follow up or take meetings after Cannes with programmers and producers who are also interested in films from Central or Eastern Europe”.
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