The 22nd edition of the Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF) began in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, on Friday night. The festival opened with the international premiere of Icelandic filmmaker Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson’s comedy, Northern Comfort, which stars the renowned British character actor Timothy Spall. Spall received a lifetime achievement award at the festival’s opening gala. This year’s festival features more than 40 films from Nordic countries, such as Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Finland, and Sweden. The festival also includes live music performances, cine-concerts, and a documentary sidebar called “What’s Up, Doc?” This sidebar will screen ten documentaries, nine of which are European productions, while one is a U.S. entry.
TIFF artistic director Mihai Chirilov highlighted the performance of the filmmakers who managed to subversively tell stories of great impact with an admirable economy of means. He commended the filmmakers for tackling burning social themes like migration, drug use, and prostitution without abusing them. Some of the Nordic highlights of the festival include Ruben Östlund’s 2022 Palm d’Or winner Triangle of Sadness, Lars von Trier’s fantasy horror series The Kingdom Exodus, and the third and final season of the iconic Danish TV series. Juho Kuosmanen’s Finnish drama Compartment No. 6, which won the 2021 Cannes Grand Prix, will also be featured.
TIIF features a competition comprising twelve films by first and second-time directors. Carbon, a clever farce by Ion Bors depicting the troubled years of the Transnistrian conflict in the early 1990s, premiered last year at San Sebastian as the first entry from the Republic of Moldova. Other titles competing for the Transylvania Trophy are Croatian surreal drama The Uncle by David Kapac and Andrija Mardesic, Brazilian comedy Charcoal by Carolina Markowitz, Canadian drama Noémie says yes by Geneviève Albert, the Argentinian thriller The Barbarians by Andrew Sala, and Czech explosive drama Banger by Adam Sedlák, which was shot entirely with an iPhone 12 Pro Max.
Two legendary personalities of cinema, Sidney Lumet and Jean-Luc Godard, will receive tribute at TIFF. Lumet, one of the most prolific American filmmakers, worked with silver-screen icons such as Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Katharine Hepburn, Sophia Loren, Paul Newman, and Henry Fonda before passing away. A six-film retrospective tribute will be dedicated to him, featuring American classics like 12 Angry Men, Serpico, Network, and Dog Day Afternoon. French New Wave icon Godar will also be honoured with an eight-film tribute that includes such classics as Breathless, Alphaville, and Pierrot le Fou. Geoffrey Rush, the acclaimed Australian actor, and the controversial American director and screenwriter Oliver Stone will receive lifetime achievement awards.
Notably, Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers, based on a screenplay by Quentin Tarantino, and Born on the Fourth of July, starring Tom Cruise, will be screened during his lifetime achievement ceremony. The director will also present his latest film, the pro-nuclear-power documentary Nuclear Now, which premiered in Venice last year.
TIFF has established itself as the most extensive international film event in Romania, attracting over 130,000 visitors and 1,000 industry professionals in the past years. However, this year, due to the pandemic, TIFF has limited the number of tickets sold to 50% of the total indoor seating capacity for public events. The festival runs until August 8th.
