Indian films win top awards at Romania’s 2024 Transilvania Film Festival

The 23rd edition of the Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF) in Romania's Cluj-Napoca announced its winners this past weekend, with Indian films winning the top awards.

The Transilvania Trophy, worth EUR 10,000, went to the Indian film Girls Will Be Girls, the debut of director Shuchi Talati. The movie explores what it means to be a woman in a strict and oppressive environment through the coming-of-age story of a teenage girl from a boarding school in the Himalayas whose mother does not seem to have experienced maturity either.

Another Indian production was rewarded with the Special Jury Prize, worth EUR 1,500. This is The Adamant Girl, directed by Vinothraj Palani, who was previously awarded at Transilvania IFF in 2021 for his debut film Pebbles.

The Official Competition Jury was also impressed by the way director Sebastián Quebrada tells a personal story in The Other Son, following the inner conflicts of each character. He was awarded the Best Director Prize, worth EUR 3,000.

Meanwhile, the Best Acting Prize, worth EUR 1,000, was awarded to Hassan Pourshirazi for his role in The Old Bachelor (directed by Oktay Baraheni).

The Feature Film Award within the Romanian Days competition was won by the independent production Dismissed, directed by Horia Cucută and George ve Ganæaard.

At the same time, the What's Up, Doc? competition, which includes films that play with the conventions of documentary cinema, was won by Kix (directed by Dávid Mikulán, Bálint Révész). The prize worth EUR 2,000 was awarded for "the cinematic confidence with which the authors accompany, as detached accomplices, the transformation of a child."

The complete list of winners is available here.

(Photo source: the organizers)