The 16^th edition of the Transilvania International Film Festival also marked a new, expanded industry section for the leading Romanian film gathering. Apart from the extended guest list of film professionals, TIFF has also invested in its own workshops and new collaborations.

The most important of the changes has been to Transilvania Pitch Stop (TPS), which this year gained a dual character, inviting both local and international participants. Under the TPS umbrella, a four-day workshop and pitching session was held, dedicated to first- and second-time directors from Romania and the Republic of Moldova. The local projects that participated in the workshop pitching session of TPS were:

Balaur – Octav Chelaru (Romania)
Bicycle – Radu Matei Barbulescu; producer: Iuliana Tarnovetchi (Romania)
Crissea – Vladimir Dembinski; producer: Bogdan Cracium (Romania)
Katiusha – Violeta Gorgos; producer: Radu Gorgos (Republic of Moldova)
La Civil – Teodora Ana Mihai; producer: Irina Malcea (Romania)
The Island – Dumitru Grosei; producer: Valentina Iusuphodjaev (Republic of Moldova)

The projects were presented on 8 June in front of a group of international industry professionals (producers, sales agents and fund representatives) and the TPS jury, comprising Kristina Trapp, CEO of EAVE, producer David Thion and director Bereczki Csaba. Along with the local section, 11 projects hailing from other countries close to Romania and currently in development and at the financing stage were also presented during the pitching session of the TPS co-production platform. The projects taking part in the second pitching session of TPS were:

Africa – Maya Vitkova (Bulgaria)
Apples [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Christos Nikou
scheda film] – Christos Nikou; producer: Hercules Mavroeidis (Greece)
Chemistry – Adina Dulcu; producer: Bogdan Craciun (Romania)
I Hate Berlin – Valentin Hotea; producer: Ada Solomon (Romania)
Idle Moments – Murat Cem Öztüfekçi; producer: Anna Maria Aslanoglu (Turkey)
Snow and the Bear – Selcen Ergun; producers: Yeşim Aslan, Zeki Peynirci (Turkey)
The Empty House – Rati Tsiteladze; producer: Nino Varsimashvili (Georgia)
The Heroes Were Dancing – Nikola Ljuca; producers: Natasa Damnjanovic, Vladimir Vidic (Serbia)
The Little Things – Kivanc Sezer; producer Sonar Alper (Turkey)
The Man Who Surprised Everyone – Natalya Merkulova and Alexey Chupov; producer: Katia Filippova (Russia)
The Return of Elijah – Mladen Djordjevic; producer: Milan Stojanovic (Serbia)

The Villa Kult Cultural Residency Award, comprising a five-day residency in Berlin with the purpose of developing a movie script, plus a €5,000 award offered by the Romanian National Film Center and authors’ rights agency Dacin Sara, went to La Civil by Teodora Ana Mihai. The movie deals with the Mexican drug war and its collateral victims as it focuses on the kidnapping and alleged murder of the heroine’s daughter by a local drug cartel.

The Island by Dumitru Grosei won the Connecting Cottbus Award, which means that the director will be invited to pitch in front of the professionals present at Connecting Cottbus. The film deals with a woman who is allegedly involved in two murders, and she is not allowed to leave the island where she works. Under the pretext of a thriller, the film then evolves into a social drama about emigration and stereotypes.

The Man Who Surprised Everyone by Natalya Merkulova and Alexey Chupov, the directorial duo behind the 2013 surprise Russian festival hit Intimate Parts, won the €30,000 Award in Post-production Services offered by Chainsaw Europe. It is set in a remote Siberian village, where a Russian man decides to take on the identity of a woman as his way of fighting a disease. His family and the local society now have to accept his new female self.

Finally, The Empty House by Cinéfondation resident Rati Tsiteladze won the prestigious Eurimages Co-production Development Award, which comes with €20,000. Set in the early 1990s in Tbilisi, Georgia, the film, which is based on a true story, follows the inescapable violence and raging civil war in the country while a war also breaks out within a family.

Here is the complete list of winners:

Villa Kult Cultural Residency Award
La Civil – Teodora Ana Mihai (Romania)

Connecting Cottbus Award
The Island – Dumitru Grosei (Moldova)

Award in Post-production Services offered by Chainsaw Europe
The Man Who Surprised Everyone – Natalya Merkulova and Alexey Chupov (Russia)

Eurimages Co-production Development Award
The Empty House – Rati Tsiteladze (Georgia)