Romanian film 'We Put the World to Sleep' readies for new wave of festival selections in 2026
The Romanian apocalyptic feature film We Put the World to Sleep, created by Adrian Țofei and Duru Yücel, ended 2025 with awards won in the fall at Nightmares Film Festival in Columbus (Best Midnight Feature and Best Supporting Performance for Yücel), premieres in top genre festivals (Nightmares, FilmQuest, Nightmare in the Ozarks, Feratum), and eight total award nominations. The movie will premiere on the US West and East Coasts and in Portugal in March-April.
The reception from audiences, filmmakers, and critics alike exceeded all expectations, according to the two creators.
Already this year, We Put the World to Sleep had its UK premiere and was shown at the MidWest WeirdFest in Wisconsin, US. The US tour will continue with the West Coast premiere at the Unnamed Footage Festival in San Francisco (March 27) and the East Coast premiere at the First Look festival in New York City (April 25).
This year also brings a brand new wave of top festival selections for the movie, including one of the most important in Europe, the IndieLisboa festival (April 30-May 10). The movie will be screened in the highly respected sidebar “Mouth of Madness,” which brings together the most anticipated new genre films on the circuit.
Adrian Țofei and Duru Yücel's goal for We Put the World to Sleep was to combine the metaphysics of 2001: A Space Odyssey with the realism of The Blair Witch Project, two of the movies that impressed and influenced Țofei the most as a filmmaker. Over 10 years of production followed.
While creating and maintaining an alternative psychological reality for their characters, Adrian and Duru shot countless hours of footage improvising guerrilla style in various locations across Romania, Türkiye, and Ukraine, using a diverse international cast. After that, they put together the details of the story in post-production during a 4-year-long and complex editing process.
(Photo source: press release)
