‘Milk Teeth’ by Romanian director Mihai Mincan to premiere in Venice Film Festival’s Orizzonti section

Milk Teeth (Dinți de lapte), the second fiction feature written and directed by Romanian filmmaker Mihai Mincan, will have its world premiere in the competitive Orizzonti section of the 82nd Venice International Film Festival, taking place between August 27 and September 6. The official selection was announced Tuesday, July 22, during the festival’s press conference.

This marks Mincan’s second selection in the Orizzonti section, following his 2022 debut To the North (Spre Nord), which won the Bisato d’Oro award from the association of independent critics in Venice.

The Orizzonti section, dedicated to showcasing the latest and most expressive trends in global cinema, will be judged this year by a jury led by French director and screenwriter Julia Ducournau. Other jurors include Italian filmmaker Yuri Ancarani, Argentine film critic Fernando Enrique Juan Lima, Australian director Shannon Murphy, and American director and writer RaMell Ross.

“Milk Teeth spent six years searching for its own voice,” said Mincan. “It started as a genre film exercise and ended up becoming something more abstract, harder to define. Its final form is a mix of the time and place I find myself in and a team who believed in me and gave me everything. I owe them more than just a film.”

The producers, Radu Stancu and Ioana Lascăr of deFilm, described the film as an allegory about Romania’s transition from communism to the hope of a new society after 1989. “It captures the uncertainty and fear of that time. Maria’s search for truth reflects a generation’s longing for justice and change, and symbolizes the hope for a free future.”

The film will premiere in Venice with the attendance of director and screenwriter Mihai Mincan, producers Radu Stancu and Ioana Lascăr, associate producer Carmen Rizac, and cast members Emma Ioana Mogoș, Marina Palii, Igor Babiac, and Istvan Teglas. Also attending are cinematographer George Chiper-Lillemark, editor Dragoș Apetri, composer Marius Leftărache, production designer Anamaria Țecu, costume designer Dana Păpăruz, and line producer Adrian Moroca.

Milk Teeth is an international co-production between Romania, France, Denmark, Greece, and Bulgaria, and features the screen debut of young actress Emma Ioana Mogoș in the lead role. Set in the late 1980s, the film follows Maria, a 10-year-old girl from a provincial town whose older sister suddenly disappears. As her parents desperately search for their missing daughter, Maria turns to her friends for help, and in doing so, is forced to find the courage to grow up.