Romania’s Transilvania International Film Festival announces international competitions

Transilvania International Film Festival, or TIFF, one of Romania’s most important film festivals, recently announced the international competitions for its 23rd edition. These competitions are dedicated to first and second-time directors.

Twelve productions are running for the Transilvania Trophy and the other awards of the Official Competition, while 10 documentaries will compete for the What’s Up, Doc? award.

"The films of the Official Competition tell stories about atypical characters, their reactions to social pressures, and the need for connection, affirmation, or independence. Intimate dramas, absurd comedies, unconventional melodramas or family chronicles of different calibers, with a slight predilection for stories of young people at crossroads,” said Mihai Chirilov, artistic director, TIFF.

After winning the directing award at the previous edition of TIFF with Charcoal, Brazilian director Carolina Markowicz returns to the Official Competition with Toll, a film about a mother whose love for her son is so great that she will do anything to raise money to send him to a "healing" camp for homosexuality.

In another corner of the world, in India, the protagonist of The Adamant Girl (r. PS Vinothraj, previously awarded at TIFF for his debut Pebbles) also struggles with an absurd situation due to the deeply patriarchal society that cannot conceive that a young woman could decide whom to love.

Also from India, Girls Will Be Girls (r. Shuchi Talati) is a coming-of-age story of a teenager from a Himalayan boarding school whose mother seems to have not experienced maturity herself.

Summer Brother (r. Joren Molter, Netherlands) is a sharp debut about an apparently hopeless family and the youngest son forced to grow up suddenly to save himself.

Directed by Cătălin Rotaru and Gabi Virginia Șarga, the only Romanian film in the Official Competition is a detonating cocktail of genres, mixing black comedy with melodrama and frequently playing with the absurd. Where Elephants Go is the story of an unlikely friendship between two nonconformist heroes - Leni, a feisty and energetic 9-year-old girl, and Marcel, a homeless, agitated, and mocking young man - both facing difficult moments in life.

2024 is the third year in which the What’s Up Doc? section has a dedicated competition within the Transilvania International Film Festival. The 10 selected titles explore the idea of the documentary genre, bringing together classic formats, hybrids, and even fiction cleverly disguised.