Romania’s Transylvania International Film Festival announces this year's winners

The Transylvania International Film Festival (TIFF) announced the winners of its 14th edition on Saturday, June 6. Argentinian film El Incendio/The Fire, directed by Juan Schnitman, won the Transylvania Trophy and a cash prize of EUR 15,000. The jury praised the film for "for its vitality, ambition and sense of risk in dealing with a complex subject,” according to a statement posted on the festival’s website. The Best Directing Award went to Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov, for their second feature The Lesson / Urok. This included a EUR 5,000 check. The same film brought actress Margita Gosheva her Best Performance Award, of EUR 1.000. The Special Jury Award of EUR 1,500 went to Rams/Hrútar, an Iceland-Denmark co-production directed by Grímur Hákonarson. The same film also won the Audience Award, gathering the highest number of votes for a film in the competition. Operation Arctic, directed by Norway’s Grethe Bøe-Waal, was the most popular film of the selection, while the FIPRESCI Prize, offered by the Federation of Film Critics for a film in the Words Are Very Unnecessary section, went to the Russian drama Test/Ispytanie, directed by Aleksandr Kott. The evening’s guest of honor Nastassja Kinski received the Special Award for the Contribution to World Cinema while Romanian actor Marin Moraru got the Excellency Award. British actor Richard Johnson was homaged post-mortem with a Lifetime Achievement Award, in memoriam. For the second consecutive year, Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu took the Romanian Days Award for Best Feature Film, with a value of EUR 6,000, for his latest film Comoara/The Treasure. Nicolae Constantin Tănase won the EUR 1,000 Romanian Days Award for Best Debut. The Romanian Days Award for Best Short Film, of EUR 1,500, was given ex aequo to Ramona by Andrei Crețulescu, and Black Friday by Roxana Stroe. Find the entire list of awards here. According to festival president Tudor Giurgiu, the event gathered more film enthusiasts this year. 27% more tickets were sold for the 2015 edition. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com (photo source: TIFF on Facebook)