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The 10th anniversary edition of the international co-productiom platform Transilvania Pitch Stop will kicked off at the Transylvania international film festival in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, this week, with ten selected projects in development, coming from first and second- time directors from Romania, Georgia, Greece, Turkey, Hungary Ukraine, Bulgaria and Republic of Moldova, being pitched to producers, distributors, sales agents, representatives of film funds and other industry professionals, followed by one-to-one meetings.

“This year, 45 projects were submitted to Transylvania Pitch Stop and after a very, very long deliberation, our selection committee carefully reviewed and handpicked 10 projects for further consideration”, says Transylvania International festival’s Head of Industry Dumitrana Lupu.

The festival’s main industry event, launched in 2014 as a workshop for up-and-coming directors from Romania and Moldova, is now one of the leading co-production events aiming to foster cross-border cooperation between the Balkans and the countries from across the Black Sea region.

Celebrating its tenth anniversary as part of the industry program of the Transilvania Film Festival, the Transilvania Pitch Stop — one of the leading co-production and co-financing platforms for filmmakers from Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the wider Black Sea region — will showcase 10 projects by first- and second-time directors searching for potential European partners on June 15 in the historic medieval city of Cluj.

The selection, which includes projects from eight countries, is a diverse crop that ranges from intimate personal dramas to stories casting a wider net, capturing their protagonists in the throes of historical forces.

“They are very different this year,” said Dumitrana Lupu, who took over as TIFF’s head of industry in 2022. “We have genre. We have mystery. We have some magical realism.”

For the first time, the organizers selected a documentary to pitch during Tps — “Second Line,” Ukrainian director-producer Olga Stuga’s chronicle of life since the...

Titles include ‘Little Death’ from ‘Dogtooth’ and ‘Burning Days’ producer Yorgos Tsourgiannis.

International co-production platform Transilvania Pitch Stop has unveiled the 10 projects set to be showcased at its 10th anniversary edition.

Titles will be presented to potential partners and financiers on June 15, during the Transilvania International Film Festival in Cluj, Romania. The features in development are from first and second time directors from Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, Hungary, Moldova, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.

They include Little Death, the feature directorial debut of Greece’s Efthimis Kosemund-Sanidis, produced by Yorgos Tsourgiannis of Horsefly Films. Tsourgiannis produced Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth, which played at...

Durban — “The Reports on Sarah and Saleem,” directed by Muayad Alayan, scooped best picture at the 39th Durban Intl. Film Festival, which wrapped Saturday night with an award ceremony at the Suncoast Cine Center complex.

The film tells the story of the political ramifications of an extra-marital affair between a Palestinian man and an Israeli woman. Variety described it as a “taut psychosocial drama.”

In a pre-recorded message from Jerusalem, Alayan offered thanks to the audience in South Africa – a country, he said, “which we as Palestinians hold in a very special place in our hearts” – while dedicating the award to “all the filmmakers out there in this world who are fighting all forms of injustice with their films and their art.”

The award punctuated a Diff whose 2018 edition “had a very special focus on hearing and seeing the marginal voices, with a focus on celebrating diversity,” according to Lliane Loots,...

Israeli title Fig Tree among selection.

The Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug 11-18) has revealed its line-up of Work in Progress titles set to participate at the event’s industry strand CineLink.

The 10 titles include Balkan projects, as well as several from further afield, such as Alamork Davidian’s Fig Tree, which recently won an award at Jerusalem Film Festival’s Pitch Point competition, and Reem Saleh’s Lebanon-Egypt doc What Comes Around.

The projects will be presented to around 40 industry delegates, and a jury consisting of Paolo Bertolin (Venice Film Festival), Paz Lazaro (Berlin International Film Festival), Hedi Zardi (LuxBox), Petra Gobel (The Post Republic) and Serkan Yildirim (Trt) will award three prizes: the Post Republic Award (€50,000 in kind), the CineLink Restart Award (€20,000 in kind), and the Turkish National Radio Television Award (€30,000 in cash).

Sarajevo’s head of industry Jovan Marjanovic commented: “The CineLink Work in Progress strand has proved to be incredibly effective for both the...

If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle was the big winner at the 5th edition of Gopo Awards (Romania's film industry honours) last night, winning seven awards, including Best Film, Best Director (Florin Şerban) and Best Supporting Actress (Clara Vodă). Titus Muntean's Kino Caravan was a surprising winner of four Gopos for Best Original Music, Best Production Design, Best Costumes and Best Make-up. On the other side, Victor Rebengiuc winning Best Actor for his performance in Medal of Honor was no surprise. While Mirela Oprişor received Best Actress award, the only Gopo award for Radu Munean's Tuesday, after Christmas. George Piştereanu impressed the jury, winning the Most Promising Newcomer for his performance in If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle. Adrian Sitaru took home the award for Best Shortfilm – The Cage, and Andrei Ujică's The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceauşescu winning the Best Documentary category was not much of a surprise at all either.

The nominations for the 5th edition of Gopo, Romania's film industry honours, have been made publicly available during this week. As expected, Florin Şerban's first feature film, If I Want to Whistle I Whistle received the most nominations with 13, followed by Marian Crişan's debut film, Morgen, with 11 nominations, while Radu Muntean's Tuesday, after Christmas was nominated in 10 categories. The Best Film category includes the three mentioned titles above plus Andrei Ujică's The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceauşescu and Medal of Honor, a film by Peter Călin Netzer. For the Best Actress award compete Ada Condeescu (If I Want to Whistle I Whistle), Adriana Trandafir (Europolis), Maria Popistaşu (Tuesday, after Christmas), Mirela Oprişor (Tuesday, after Christmas) and Ozana Oancea (First of All, Felicia). Best Actor award will go to one of the following: Andras Hathazi (Morgen), George Piştereanu (If I Want to Whistle I Whistle), Mimi Brănescu (Tuesday, after Christmas), Victor Rebengiuc...

If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle, Tuesday, After Christmas, and the other nominations for the 2011 Gopo Awards (Premiile Gopo) have been announced. The 5th Annual Gopo Awards (Premiile Gopo) ”are the national Romanian film awards, similar to the Academy Awards (U.S.A.), the Goya Awards (Spain), or the César Award (France). They are presented by the Association for Romanian Film Promotion.” The full listing of the 2011 Gopo Awards (Premiile Gopo) is presented below.

Best Film

Autobiografia lui Nicolae Ceau?escu (The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu)

Producer, Velvet Moraru; Director, Andrei Ujic?

Eu când vreau s? fluier, fluier (If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle)

Producer, C?t?lin Mitulescu, Daniel Mitulescu; Director, Florin ?erban

Mar?i, dup? Cr?ciun (Tuesday, After Christmas)

Producer, Drago? Vîlcu; Director, Radu Muntean

Medalia de onoare (Medal of Honour)

Producer, Liviu Marghidan; Director, Peter C?lin Netzer

Morgen

Producer, Anca Puiu; Director, Marian Cri?...

Constantin Popescu is currently shooting and is close to wrapping up his feature length directorial debut with a familiar face in some award winning samples of Romanian cinema in the lead role. - Constantin Popescu is currently shooting and is close to wrapping up his feature length directorial debut with a familiar face in some award winning samples of Romanian cinema in the lead role. Written by Razvan Radulescu and Alexandru Baciu (The Paper Will Be Blue), this is a contemporary, drama set during a 24-hour period that features a father played by Vlad Ivanov who is disconnected from his family, especially from his son. Filmneweurope reports that Principles of Life has picked up a good number of grants and is being lensed by California Dreamin's Liviu Marghidan.  Among the five directors who participated in Tales from the Golden Age, the omnibus project devised by Cristian Mungiu...