Cristi Puiu’s Sieranevada gets most nominations for Romania’s Gopo film awards

Romanian director Cristi Puiu’s 2016 drama Sieranevada, which was in the competition for a Palme d’Or at last year’s Cannes film festival, gathered a total of 16 nominations at this year’s edition of the Gopo Awards, an event awarding the local film industry. A total of 21 Romanian feature films launched in local cinemas in 2016 were considered for the various categories of the Gopo Awards, which take place March 21 at the National Theater in Bucharest. Five movies were nominated in The Best Film category, all of them having received a host of international recognition before. They are Graduation by Cristian Mungiu, Dogs by Bogdan Mirica, Two Lottery Tickets by Paul Negoescu, Scarred Hearts by Radu Jude, and Sieranevada by Cristi Puiu. The nominees in the Best Director category are Cristian Mungiu, Adrian Sitaru (for Illegitimate), Cristi Puiu , Bogdan Mirica and Radu Jude. Director Cristian Mungiu, a 2007 Palme d’Or winner, received in 2016 the Best Director award at the Cannes film festival, a distinction he shared with French director Olivier Assayas. Mimi Branescu (Sieranevada), Adrian Titieni (Graduation), Bogdan Dumitrache (Double), Gheorghe Visu (Dogs), and András Hatházi (Horizon) are nominated in the Best Actor category. The contenders for the Best Actress award are Medeea Marinescu (03.ByPass), Dana Dogaru (Sieranevada), Maria Dragus (Graduation), Rodica Lazar (Horizon), and Alina Grigore (Illegitimate). The Best Supporting Actor category has as nominees Adrian Titieni (Graduation), Vlad Ivanov (Dogs), Serban Pavlu (Scarred Hearts), Petre Ciubotaru (Graduation), and Sorin Medeleni (