Aurora wins at Gopos (against Cristi Puiu's will)

by Stefan Dobroiu

27/03/2012 - Cristi Puiu's Aurora [trailer] won the most important three prizes at this year's Gopos, the Romanian film industry awards. A record number of 98 features, documentaries and short films produced or co-produced in Romania and domestically released in 2011 were considered for this edition of the awards.

With Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay awards, Aurora was the best-honoured Romanian film of 2011, according to 400 voting film-makers, critics and film journalists who decide the winners. Incidentally, Cristi Puiu refused to be nominated, stating that the awards were not relevant in a film industry with so few features released annually. The director did not attend the gala.

Ana Ularu won the Best Actress award for Outbound [trailer], while Bogdan Dumitrache won Best Actor for Best Intentions. Best Supporting Actor and Actress awards went to Adrian Titieni (Best Intentions) and Ioana Flora (Outbound). Bogdan George Apetri won Best First Feature award for Outbound, which also won Best Editing (Eugen Kelemen) and Best Cinematography (Marius Panduru).

Anca Damian's Crulic – The Path to Beyond [trailer, film focus] won Best Sound and Best Original Music and Sinisa Dragin's If the Seed doesn't die won Best Art Direction. Short film Silent River won its category and brought director Anca Miruna Lazarescu the Best Young Hope award. Hello! How Are You? [trailer], the first Romanian romantic comedy in years, received awards for Best Costumes and Best Make-Up.

Film and stage legends Tamara Buciuceanu-Botez and Iurie Darie received awards for their contribution to Romanian cinema. The Audience Award went to the Mediapro Pictures production The Godmother, the most popular Romanian film of 2011, with approximately 26,000 admissions.