14/10/2008

With €200,000 Fanny Ardant’s French/Romanian co-production Cendres et Sang is one of the big winners of this autumn’s Romanian Film Centre (CNC) financing session although this sum is not the highest awarded to a first-time filmmaker. TV star Dan Chisu’s The Bear, a burlesque movie whose soundtrack will feature Goran Bregovic, got €284,000 of the €411,000 producers Libra Film requested.

Corneliu Porumboiu (12:08 East of Bucharest [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Corneliu Porumboiu
interview: Daniel Burlac
film profile]) and Cristi Puiu (The Death of Mr. Lazarescu [+see also:
trailer
film profile], The Dough and the Money) will also be supported in their future projects by the CNC. Puiu’s Aurora, developed in this year’s Cannes Atelier will receive €453,000, while Porumboiu’s Intermediar now has an extra €425,000 for a total budget of €850,000.

Besides Ardant’s flick, three other feature co-productions were awarded CNC grants: Intoarcerea Solomonarilor (“The Return of the Solomonari”), an Artis Film animation directed by Tatiana Apahidean, Daiana Purunderu and Stanley Duchateau; Adrian Sitaru’s Of Love, with Best Intentions; and Hungarian director Krisztina Deak’s adaptation of Aglaja Veteranyi’s novel, De ce fierbe copilul in mamaliga.

Controversy surrounds veteran Cristina Nichitus’ win of an over €300,000 for her fourth feature project, Tranzitia, bat-o vina!. The director’s previous film, Si totul era nimic proved a flop, with less than 1,000 admissions at home. This is not the first time the CNC supports this kind of project: every year, a significant number of features turn out to be box office and festival washouts directed or produced by filmmakers who made a name for themselves before 1989.