American Independent Film Festival holds 8th edition in Bucharest and Bran Castle

The American Independent Film Festival (AIFF) returns for its 8th edition in Romania next month, showcasing films from June 7 to 13 in Bucharest and, for the first time this year, in the magical setting of Bran Castle on June 7 and 8.

For the first time in the festival's history and that of the famous Bran Castle, AIFF 8 will organize premiere film screenings on June 7 and 8, at dusk, in the castle's courtyard.

AIFF 8 aims to reconnect the Romanian public, as well as potential foreign tourists, with the beauty of open-air cinema, highlighted by the unique setting and the breathtaking atmosphere of one of Romania's most beautiful places.

HIT MAN (Richard Linklater) will open the festival on Friday, June 7, both at Cinema Elvira Popesco in Bucharest and outdoors in the courtyard of Bran Castle. A bright neo-noir, the movie sees Glen Powell, an actor known more for blockbusters, playing Gary Johnson, who leads a double life as a teacher and a fake hitman for the New Orleans Police Department. With an extraordinary ability to slip into different characters and personalities, Gary finds himself attracted to one of the potential criminals he has to catch, Madison, played by Adria Arjona.

Kinds of Kindness, the latest film by Yorgos Lanthimos, which will have its international premiere on May 17 in competition at Cannes, will close the festival in Bucharest on Thursday, June 13, with two simultaneous screenings at Elvira Popesco and Cinema Muzeul Țăranului, the two venues in the city hosting the festival's screenings, according to the official website.

The movie follows three seemingly distinct stories that are intrinsically linked: that of a man without options trying to take control of his life, a policeman worried that his wife, who had been missing at sea, has returned and seems like a completely different person, and a woman determined to find someone destined to become a prodigious spiritual leader.

The film features a stellar cast: Emma Stone, who just won an Oscar for Poor Things, Jesse Plemons (Other People, The Power of the Dog), Willem Dafoe (Poor Things, The Lighthouse, Florida Project), and Margaret Qualley (Poor Things, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Maid series).

"AIFF 8 continues its mission to offer the Romanian public films that are more than just entertainment, to facilitate dialogue between the audience and the filmmakers, to cultivate the experience of watching films as a social event within the community, and to use cinema as an opportunity for connection and communication with others, including through the promotion of social causes to which the festival donates its ticket sales proceeds, as it does every year," said Cristian Mungiu, director of AIFF.