Radio România Internațional

Tag: film festival

  • Ciao, Italy! Animest 19

    Ciao, Italy! Animest 19

    After having gathered 15 thousand viewers in front of the cinema screens at the previous edition, the International Animation Film Festival – Animest, returns to Bucharest, between October 4 and 13.

     

    Italian animation is in the spotlight of this 19th edition of the festival, thus continuing a long tradition of annual retrospectives dedicated to countries that have set important milestones in cinematography over time. This year, the public will have the unique opportunity to explore the richness and diversity of Italian animation through an impressive selection of films, guests and special events, which bring to the fore both classics of the genre and renowned contemporary works. The “Ciao, Italy!” program, presented by the guest country of the current edition, is supported by the Italian Culture Institute in Bucharest and Animaphix, the International Animation Film Festival in Sicily.

     

    Mihai Mitrică, the artistic director of Animest: “We chose Italy for this year because it has a rich tradition in animated films. It is true that in recent years the Italian industry has not had the scope it had a few decades ago, but the tradition of Italian cinema cannot be overlooked. We had been planning for some time to focus on Italian animation, but we only managed to do so at this edition and we thank our colleague and friend from Italy, Andrea Martignoni, for this extensive retrospective. The retrospective curated by Andrea Martignoni, a renowned film sound designer, includes classic and contemporary Italian animation, and the three feature films chosen are representative of what Italian animation is all about: “Allegro non tropo” (dir. Bruno Bozzetto, 1976), “L’arte della felicità” / “The Art of Happiness” (dir. Alessandro Rak, 2013), awarded at the Venice Film Festival, and “Invelle” / “Nowhere” (dir . Simone Massi), also awarded in Venice.”

     

    Increasingly innovative and stylistically complex, the 12 short films included in the Romanian Competition at the 19th edition of Animest paint an overall urban picture of the local contemporary animation. The short films in this year’s selection are a mix of productions signed by students at the beginning of their journey in the field and films created by established animation artists. This year, 32 films entered the Romanian Animest Competition, a very large number that demonstrates the continuous development of this field, as a result of the constant support in the last 19 years.

     

    Animest’s impact on the animation industry in Romania can be seen directly on the big screens in this year’s selection, full of courageous approaches and original stories that focus mostly on relationships and bonding – as a couple, in the family or in the community.

     

    Mihai Mitrică, Animest director: “Every year we receive more and more Romanian animation projects, which makes us happy. Moreover, it is also about the quality of the films, which is getting better and better. This is also due to the fact that the animation school, both within the National University of Theater and Cinematography “Ion Luca Caragiale” in Bucharest, and within the film and theater faculties in Oradea, Cluj and Iași is starting to bear fruit, certainly thanks to the Animest festival. We only show the work of the animators and promote their films, the merit is of the animation schools and of course of the producers. Two of the directors returning to the Animest competition are Tudor Avrămuț and Serghei Chiviriga, who made a children’s film called TIBI. Andreia Dobrotă is also present with a film at Animest. She is a director who lives in the Netherlands and makes a film almost every year. This is an independent project, one of the many projects she is working on. I would also mention a Romania-France co-production, which is based on a Romanian story. It is a film by the French director Mélody Boulissière, whose subject is a love story during the Second World War, based on the photo collection of the well-known photographer Constantin Axinte from Slobozia.”

     

    Alina Gheorghe also returns to the Romanian Animest Competition with a new training film, “Dirty Paradise”, a metaphor about rejecting one’s self and idealizing perfection. The 19th edition of the Animest Festival proposes a series of urban white nights dedicated to the most daring of animated film lovers. Atypical stories, intense experiences, nocturnal screenings and challenging experiments come together in a sophisticated cocktail of thematic events – new and established. Trippy Animation Night returns with an unusual and electrifying collection, Creepy Animation Night gives chills to even the bravest of spectators, Erotica – The Night of Erotic Animation stimulates the imagination outside the comfort zone, and Animusic Night will once again prove that quality parties also find a place in the cinema world. Moreover, this year, the special events are complemented by a new entry, devoted to young people – Fresh Frames, a selection of animated films mostly made by teenagers in the workshops supported by the Animation Incubator during the year. (EE, LS)

  • November 22, 2020 UPDATE

    November 22, 2020 UPDATE

    COVID-19 The total number of COVID-19 cases in Romania since the start of the pandemic passes 418,000. On Sunday, 5,800 new cases were reported. Another 131 coronavirus-related deaths were also confirmed, taking the death toll to over 10,000. A further 1,174 patients are currently in intensive care. The health minister said at present there are around 1,390 intensive care beds, with another 280 to be available in the coming period. Local lockdowns were introduced in several towns and villages with large number of cases, including around the capital Bucharest. President Klaus Iohannis said this is a measure that has proved effective in containing the epidemic. He added similar measures are being considered in many other localities, but that in the coming 2-3 weeks things will return to “somewhat normal parameters. Iohannis announced he would have a meeting on Monday with the health, interior and defence ministers, to clarify aspects related to the anti-COVID vaccination campaign, which he sees as a matter of national security.



    GAUDEAMUS Another 30 new events could be watched online on Sunday, the last day of the Gaudeamus Radio România book fair, held exclusively online this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. A rich diversity of events could be accessed on the Fairs Facebook page and website. By Saturday night, the events website had reported more than 40,000 single users. Nearly 200 books were presented online. Apart from the virtual book releases on Facebook and on gaudeamus.ro, the vote for the publics favourite book continued. The Gaudeamus Radio România book fair is a cultural project with a tradition of more than 2 decades. Over 100 companies are taking part, including some of the biggest publishing houses in Romania and distributors of Romanian and foreign books, music and games.



    FILM The 5th BUZZ International Film Festival, based in Buzau and devoted to European cinema, is held exclusively online this year. Until Thursday, November 26, film lovers are invited to enjoy Romanian and European films free of charge. According to the organisers, the Festival has 4 competition sections: fiction features, documentaries, short films and student films. Most of the works in the competition are screened for the first time in Romania. This years surprises include Radu Ciorniciucs documentary, “Home, awarded in major international festivals. In the BUZZ Women section, the highlights include ‘Creativ’, a documentary by Ioana Grigore, and Nora Fingscheidts ‘System Crasher,’ winner of the Silver Bear – “Alfred Bauer Award in Berlin in 2019.



    G20 The leaders of the worlds 20 biggest economies, convening at the virtual G20 summit, hosted for the first time by Saudi Arabia, pledged to secure accessible pricing and fair access to COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments, and that poorer countries are not affected. According to the meetings outcome document, the participants promised to support a global project on vaccines, tests and medicines. The main topic on the agenda of the summit was the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. The French president Emmanuel Macron said, “We need to avoid at all costs a scenario of a two-speed world where only the richer can protect themselves against the virus and restart normal lives. In turn, the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, proposed an international treaty on pandemic, which would be very useful, he argued, even if the World Health Organisation must remain at the forefront of future health crisis management.



    PANDEMIC The total number of Covid-19 cases worldwide is now over 58 million, with nearly 1.4 million deaths and over 40.5 million people having recovered from the disease, according to Worldometers.info. The US is the worst hit country, with over 12.4 million cases and at least 261,000 deaths. The American company Pfizer and their German partner BioNTech announced they have requested emergency authorisation of their COVID-19 vaccine in the US. The US Food and Drug Administration says the goal is to have the vaccine approved in the first half of December. The 2 companies claim to be able to supply the vaccine within hours of its approval. In turn, the EU may approve 2 vaccines by the end of December, the one produced by Pfizer/BioNTech and the one produced by Moderna. Madrid is to endorse on Tuesday a large-scale vaccination plan covering a large part of the population by next summer. The Madrid region will be under lockdown in the first half of December. The Italian government also announced plans to ease restrictions prior to the winter holidays, with tougher measures to be introduced between Christmas and New Years Eve. Portugal will also close schools ahead of 2 major national holidays, in a move to prevent the spread of the disease before Christmas. (translated by: A.M. Popescu)

  • TIFF 2018

    TIFF 2018

    Held in the northwestern city of Cluj Napoca, the Transylvania International Film Festival this year put the spotlight on South-American cinema. A production from Paraguay won the Grand Prize, namely Marcelo Martinessi’s The Heiresses, which also won the Silver Bear trophy at the Berlin Film Festival this winter. Martinessi was handed the award by none other than the great Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu. According to a festival release, Marcelo Martinessi impressed the jury through his exceptional rigor and the captivating pace of his film, winning a competition in which 11 other very good films made the jury’s task very difficult.



    The jury made up of director Dagur Kari, casting director and filmmaker Stephane Foenkinos, script writer Rebecca Lenkiewicz, the actor Vlad Ivanov and the director Agnes Kocsis gave the award for best director to the Icelandic director Hlynur Palmason for his film Winter Brothers, which impressed through its “passion and cinematographic beauty and energy”. Three of the actors playing in Anchor and Hope by the Spanish director Carlos Marques Marcet stood out for the “exceptional way in which they complement each other on screen, with intelligence and charm, to create emotional roles full of humour”, so the award for best actor went jointly to Natalia Tena, Oona Chaplin and David Verdaguer.



    They received the trophy from the French-American actor Jean-Marc Barr, one of the festival’s special guests. Two courageous productions won the Jury’s Special Prize, Asghar Yousefinejad’s The Home and Anna Kruglova’s Scythe Hitting Stone. The FIPRESCI Prize, awarded by the International Federation of Film Critics, went to Ruth Mader’s Life Guidance, a title shown in the section To be or not to be politically correct.



    The audience award went to Gustav Moller’s thriller The Guilty. The guest of honour of this year’s festival, the French actor Fanny Ardant received a lifetime achievement award. Her acceptance speech was very emotional. The 50-year-long career of the ethnic-Hungarian Romanian actor Anna Szeles was also celebrated through a special prize. Last but not least, the Young Francophone Jury Prize given by TV5 Monde, the French Institute and RFI Romania went to Cedric Kahn’s The Prayer for its “harmonious visual discourse, soundtrack and absorbing characters”. (Translated by C. Mateescu)

  • TIFF 2018

    TIFF 2018

    Held in the northwestern city of Cluj Napoca, the Transylvania International Film Festival this year put the spotlight on South-American cinema. A production from Paraguay won the Grand Prize, namely Marcelo Martinessi’s The Heiresses, which also won the Silver Bear trophy at the Berlin Film Festival this winter. Martinessi was handed the award by none other than the great Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu. According to a festival release, Marcelo Martinessi impressed the jury through his exceptional rigor and the captivating pace of his film, winning a competition in which 11 other very good films made the jury’s task very difficult.



    The jury made up of director Dagur Kari, casting director and filmmaker Stephane Foenkinos, script writer Rebecca Lenkiewicz, the actor Vlad Ivanov and the director Agnes Kocsis gave the award for best director to the Icelandic director Hlynur Palmason for his film Winter Brothers, which impressed through its “passion and cinematographic beauty and energy”. Three of the actors playing in Anchor and Hope by the Spanish director Carlos Marques Marcet stood out for the “exceptional way in which they complement each other on screen, with intelligence and charm, to create emotional roles full of humour”, so the award for best actor went jointly to Natalia Tena, Oona Chaplin and David Verdaguer.



    They received the trophy from the French-American actor Jean-Marc Barr, one of the festival’s special guests. Two courageous productions won the Jury’s Special Prize, Asghar Yousefinejad’s The Home and Anna Kruglova’s Scythe Hitting Stone. The FIPRESCI Prize, awarded by the International Federation of Film Critics, went to Ruth Mader’s Life Guidance, a title shown in the section To be or not to be politically correct.



    The audience award went to Gustav Moller’s thriller The Guilty. The guest of honour of this year’s festival, the French actor Fanny Ardant received a lifetime achievement award. Her acceptance speech was very emotional. The 50-year-long career of the ethnic-Hungarian Romanian actor Anna Szeles was also celebrated through a special prize. Last but not least, the Young Francophone Jury Prize given by TV5 Monde, the French Institute and RFI Romania went to Cedric Kahn’s The Prayer for its “harmonious visual discourse, soundtrack and absorbing characters”. (Translated by C. Mateescu)

  • TIFF 2018

    TIFF 2018

    The 17th Transylvania International Film Festival (TIFF), the largest event in Romania devoted to the film industry, has begun in Cluj-Napoca. Until June 3rd, hundreds of films will be screened, from classical ones to world premieres, alongside events that combine film with music, exhibitions, innovative workshops, round-tables and glamorous parties. Three different generations of Romanian film-makers, actors and producers having influenced the Romanian cinematography are convening in Cluj this year.



    A member of the jury of the international competition, Vlad Ivanov is one of the most prolific Romanian actors in recent years, having shot to fame with his part in “4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days by Cristian Mungiu, which won the Palme DOr in Cannes in 2007.



    Directors Adina Pintilie and Andrei Cretulescu will take part in the international competition with their films “Touch me not and “Charleston, respectively. Excerpts from Stere Guleas “Morometii 2, the most eagerly awaited Romanian film of the year, will also be screened for the first time in Cluj.



    This years Festival agenda includes over 225 productions from all parts of the world, competing in separate sections like Official Competition, Supernova, Shadows, No Limits, Whats Up, Doc?, Romanian Days, Hungarian Day, TIFF Education and HBO Day.



    The 12 works selected into the official competition are relevant for the state of play in the film art and industry around the world. On the other hand, a number of productions by Romanian directors will be brought together under the heading “Romania 100, to celebrate the Union Centennial. These include the 1965 “Rascoala (The Uprising), the film that won director Mircea Muresan the debut award in Cannes, “Explozia (Explosion) by Mircea Dragan (1973) and “The last night of childhood by the Cluj-based director Savel Stiopul.



    One of the most popular French film stars, the actress and director Fanny Ardant, is one of this years guests of honour, and will receive the Transylvania Trophy. In a retrospective event devoted to the artist, the public will be able to see her again in two of the best films of her career.



    One of the best Romanian films of all times, the “Forest of the Hanged (1965), which won Liviu Ciulei the Best Director Award in Cannes, will also be shown in Cluj, as a tribute to Anna Szeles, who is to receive the lifetime achievement award in this years TIFF. The famed opera singer Angela Gheorghiu is another guest of honour in the 2018 edition of the festival.(Edited by D. Vijeu)

  • TIFF 2018

    TIFF 2018

    The 17th Transylvania International Film Festival (TIFF), the largest event in Romania devoted to the film industry, has begun in Cluj-Napoca. Until June 3rd, hundreds of films will be screened, from classical ones to world premieres, alongside events that combine film with music, exhibitions, innovative workshops, round-tables and glamorous parties. Three different generations of Romanian film-makers, actors and producers having influenced the Romanian cinematography are convening in Cluj this year.



    A member of the jury of the international competition, Vlad Ivanov is one of the most prolific Romanian actors in recent years, having shot to fame with his part in “4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days by Cristian Mungiu, which won the Palme DOr in Cannes in 2007.



    Directors Adina Pintilie and Andrei Cretulescu will take part in the international competition with their films “Touch me not and “Charleston, respectively. Excerpts from Stere Guleas “Morometii 2, the most eagerly awaited Romanian film of the year, will also be screened for the first time in Cluj.



    This years Festival agenda includes over 225 productions from all parts of the world, competing in separate sections like Official Competition, Supernova, Shadows, No Limits, Whats Up, Doc?, Romanian Days, Hungarian Day, TIFF Education and HBO Day.



    The 12 works selected into the official competition are relevant for the state of play in the film art and industry around the world. On the other hand, a number of productions by Romanian directors will be brought together under the heading “Romania 100, to celebrate the Union Centennial. These include the 1965 “Rascoala (The Uprising), the film that won director Mircea Muresan the debut award in Cannes, “Explozia (Explosion) by Mircea Dragan (1973) and “The last night of childhood by the Cluj-based director Savel Stiopul.



    One of the most popular French film stars, the actress and director Fanny Ardant, is one of this years guests of honour, and will receive the Transylvania Trophy. In a retrospective event devoted to the artist, the public will be able to see her again in two of the best films of her career.



    One of the best Romanian films of all times, the “Forest of the Hanged (1965), which won Liviu Ciulei the Best Director Award in Cannes, will also be shown in Cluj, as a tribute to Anna Szeles, who is to receive the lifetime achievement award in this years TIFF. The famed opera singer Angela Gheorghiu is another guest of honour in the 2018 edition of the festival.(Edited by D. Vijeu)

  • October 22, 2016 UPDATE

    October 22, 2016 UPDATE

    CETA – Romania will carry on negotiations with Canada on lifting visa requirements for Romanians, irrespective of the decisions on the EU – Canada free trade agreement. President Klaus Iohannis said, at the end of the European Council meeting in Brussels, that talks on this topic would follow their appointed course and that there was no deadline for completing them. Negotiations on the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) were resumed in Brussels on Saturday, after the previous day they were suspended because of the opposition of the Belgian region of Wallonia, which is against a number of provisions in the text. Romania has pinned its hopes on CETA, on which the lifting of visa requirements for its citizens depended. More specifically, Bucharest had reached a deal with Ottawa to allow visa-free entry for its citizens as of December next year, in exchange for Romania giving up its objections to CETA. In fact, President Klaus Iohannis announced on Friday that an agreement had been reached on a gradual elimination of visas. Because of Wallonias veto, the EU-Canada trade agreement is currently suspended, and so is the issue of visa requirements for Romanians.




    RALLY – Some 1,500 people took part on Saturday in Bucharest in a rally supporting the Republic of Moldovas joining Romania. Many participants have come from the neighbouring ex-Soviet republic with a mostly Romanian-speaking population. They believe that, in the current geopolitical context, the union of the two countries is the only solution to ensure that the ethnic Romanians in Moldova will not be the victims of a Russian aggression similar to the one against Ukraine. Already a tradition in Bucharest, the pro-Bessarabia rallies started in 2012, with the commemoration of 200 years since this province was first annexed by Tsarist Russia. Todays Republic of Moldova has been established on part of the territory of Bessarabia, which had re-joined Romania after WWI and was re-annexed by the USSR in 1940.




    NATO – The Black Sea region is a geostrategic region where threats for NATO and for its eastern and southern partners overlap, including migration, terror groups and trafficking, said Gen. Nicolae Ciucă, Chief of general Staff of the Romanian Army. He represented Romania at the Strategic Military Partner Conference organised in Bucharest by NATOs Allied Command Transformation. Attending were representatives of 70 NATO member and partner countries. Columbia and Nigeria took part for the first time in talks in this context. The Strategic Military Partner Conference convenes every year and is the main NATO forum discussing the transformations and future challenges for the Alliance and its partners. The main topic of this years talks was the prospective enlargement of partnerships with the North-Atlantic Alliance.




    CINEMA – The feature film ‘Sieranevada’ by the Romanian director Cristi Puiu won two major awards at the Chicago Film Festival, the official site of the competition reports. ‘Sieranevada’ was awarded the Gold Hugo for the best film and the Silver Hugo for best director. Another Romanian feature film, “Graduation by Cristian Mungiu, won the Silver Plaque for best screenplay and Silver Hugo for best actor – Adrian Titieni. This year the Chicago International Film Festival has reached its 52nd edition.



    TENNIS – The Romanian tennis player Monica Niculescu (51 WTA) Saturday won the Luxembourg tournament with 250,000 US dollars in prize money, after defeating seed no 1 Petra Kvitova (Czech Republic) 6/4, 6/0. This is the third WTA tournament that Niculescu has won, after Florianopolis (Brazil) in 2013, and Guangzhou (China) in 2014. In other news, on Sunday, the Romanian Simona Halep plays against Madison Keys from the US, in her first match at the WTA Finals in Singapore, which has 7 million US dollars in total prize money. Halep, seeded 3rd in the competition, plays in the Red Group, which also includes top seed and world no 1 Angelique Kerber (Germany) and Dominika Cibulkova (Slovakia). The White Group includes Polands Agnieszka Radwanska, Karolina Pliskova (Czech Republic), Garbine Muguruza (Spain), with the last spot in this group to be filled by either Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova or Britians Johanna Konta. Simona Halep takes part for the third time in the WTA Finals, after having played the 2014 finals against Serena Williams, and leaving the competition last year in the group stage.

    (translated by: Ana Maria Popescu)

  • May 28, 2016

    May 28, 2016

    The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, warned that Romania and Poland might be within the range of Russian missiles, in the context of their hosting elements of the American missile defence system, seen as a threat to Moscow, Reuters reports. Putin reiterated the warning concerning the anti-missile system in Romania, claiming that although Moscow had repeatedly said it would retaliate, Washington and its allies ignored the warnings. This month the American anti-missile system in Deveselu, southern Romania, became operational, and a similar operation is due in Poland. NATOs plans to place components of its missile defence system in Romania and Poland has generated tensions with Russia from the very beginning. Moscow views the military system as targeting its territory, although the Alliance has repeatedly explained it targeted the forces of countries like Iran and North Korea. The Deveselu military base is 180 km from Bucharest, and the shield is activated upon identification of hostile missiles by its fixed or mobile radars.



    The Romanian Cultural Institute, the “Eudoxiu Hurmuzachi Institute and the Romanian Foreign Ministrys Department for Policies concerning the Romanians abroad are this year putting together a joint programme to celebrate the Day of the Romanian diaspora. The events, which take place today and tomorrow in Bucharest, bring together representatives of Romanian communities in the Balkan region as well as notable personalities that promote Romanias image. The programme includes a conference on the national identity abroad and the role of Romanian education. A fair will also be organized to showcase the traditions of the Romanian communities, and folk ensembles from Ukraine, Serbia, the Republic of Moldova and Romania will stage music and dance shows. The day of Romanians living abroad will also be celebrated in Cernauti, through 2 folklore performances, and in Madrid, which will host a Romanian traditional music concert.



    The EU has extended by another year the sanctions against Syrias Bashar al Assad regime, until July 1, 2017. The measures include, among others, an oil embargo, investment restrictions, the freezing of the assets of the Syrian central bank in the EU, restrictions on technology and equipment exports that might be used for domestic repression. Also, some transactions, through which Bashar al Assads forces may intercept the opposition members calls and electronic communications are blocked. More than 200 individuals and 70 companies and institutions are subject to travel bans and account freeze measures, in response to the violent repression of civilians in Syria. Brussels also maintains its commitment to identifying a long-term solution for the Syrian conflict, and intends to help organize new peace talks between the parties.




    Nearly 3,000 people attended on Friday in Cluj-Napoca the opening gala of the Transylvania International Film Festival, held in the citys central square. Todays agenda includes special events organized both in the city and at the Banffy Castle in the village of Bonţida, dubbed the Transylvania Versailles. The public will be able to watch some of the best Lithuanian productions, while at the Students Cultural Centre the Romanian astronaut Dumitru Prunariu will talk to those interested in films on that topic. Until June 5, more than 248 films will be screened, of which 216 feature films and 32 shorts. This years festival will include the Romanian premiere of Dogs, the winner of the Critics Award in Cannes. The special guest of the current edition of TIFF is actress Sophia Loren, who travels to Romania for the first time, to pick up a lifetime achievement award.



    Two Romanian players have qualified for the eighth-finals of the Roland Garros tournament, the second Grand Slam of the year. Simona Halep, no 6 in the world, will take on the Australian Samantha Stosur (24 WTA), while Irina Begu (28 WTA) will be competing against the American Shelby Rogers (108 WTA) for a place in the quarter-finals. Halep and Stosur have so far played 7 times against each other, with the Romanian player winning four times. For Irina Begu on the other hand, this is the first eighth-final qualification, and she has never played against Rogers before. In the mens doubles, the Romanian/Indian pair Florin Mergea and Rohan Bopanna have also reached the eighth-final stage.

  • April 24, 2016

    April 24, 2016

    LEGISLATION – The Romanian Labour Ministry will initiate tomorrow talks with its social partners on a new emergency order aimed at doing away with inequities in public sector salaries. The new legislation is scheduled to be finalised within three weeks. In an interview to Radio Romania, the Finance Minister Anca Dragu said the Government intended to increase the lower salaries in the public administration, because the budget resources were limited. She also explained that according to data available to the Finance Ministry, in the first months of the year revenues to the state budget were higher than estimated.



    DIPLOMACY – The Romanian Foreign Ministry hails the celebration, on April 24, of 85 years since diplomatic relations were established between Romania and Argentina. According to a news release, these relations are expressed in a constant political dialogue, including as members of international organisations, as well as in mutual economic and trade interests. Grassroots contacts, the old Romanian community in Argentina and the Latin origin of the two languages are also key elements that define bilateral relations. The first official contacts between Romania and Argentina were reported in 1880. Diplomatic relations were established on April 24, 1931, at legation level, and on March 29, 1964, the diplomatic offices were upgraded to embassy.



    NATO – The deputy Secretary General of NATO, Alexander Vershbow, will be received on Monday by President Klaus Iohannis, and will also have a meeting with the Romanian Defence Minister, Mihnea Motoc. According to the Defence Ministry, the NATO official is in Romania between April 24 and 26 to take part in a meeting of of political leaders in the defence ministries of NATO member states. Meanwhile, the US President, Barack Obama, who is to have a meeting tomorrow with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, will call on Germany to get more involved in the defence of eastern NATO member countries. German governmental sources quoted by Der Spiegel magazine said additional NATO troops might be deployed to Romania, Poland and the Baltic States. An official decision on increasing the NATO military presence in the east is to be made at the Alliance Summit due in Warsaw. The Pentagon has already announced in late March that the US will send more troops to Eastern Europe, Romania included, as of 2017, as part of the measures to guarantee security against the backdrop of Russias recent actions.



    PALM SUNDAY – Romanian Orthodox and Greek-Catholic Christians celebrate Palm Sunday today, which is a commemoration of Jesus Christs entry in Jerusalem before his crucifixion. The previous day, thousands of believers and hundreds of priests took part in processions, in the country and abroad, in a symbolic reconstruction of Christs journey to Jerusalem. Palm Sunday opens the last week of Lent, also known as Passion Week, which commemorates the most dramatic days in the life of Jesus Christ. On Palm Sunday, nearly 1.4 million Romanians named after flower names celebrate their name day.



    FESTIVALS – The feature film “Soy Nero, directed by the Iranian Rafi Pitts, last night won the Grand Prize of the 12th Bucharest International Film Festival (BIFF). “Soy Nero tells the story of a Mexican who gets deported and returns to the US illegally in search of his own identity. The award for the best director went to Mia Hansen-Love (France) for “L’avenir. “Death in Sarajevo by Danis Tranovic won the award for best script. Meanwhile, in the southern Romanian city of Craiova, the 10th Shakespeare International Theatre Festival came to an end last night. This latest edition commemorated 400 years since the death of the great British playwright.




    TENNIS – The Romanians Florin Mergea and Horia Tecău are playing today, in the doubles final of the BRD Năstase – Ţiriac Trophy in Bucharest, with 460,000 Euros in prize money, against Chris Guccione (Australia) and Andre Sa (Brazil). Yesterday, in the semi-finals, the Romanians outplayed the Dutch Wesley Koolhof and Matwe Middelkoop, 3-6, 6-2, 10-8. Meanwhile, the Romanian Andreea Mitu and Turkeys Ipek Soylu, are playing today in the doubles final of the Istanbul tournament, against Xenia Knoll (Switzerland)/Danka Kovinic (Montenegro).

  • The Inaugural Edition of the National Film Festival for the Visually Impair

    The Inaugural Edition of the National Film Festival for the Visually Impair

    Ten older and more recent Romanian films were screened at the inaugural edition of the National Film Festival for the Visually Impaired. Mounted in Bucharest over May 15 and 19, the festival allowed the visually impaired but also anybody interested in such an experience, the opportunity to watch a string of notable productions. The films presented at the festival were Radu Judes Aferim, Radu Munteans Tuesday After Christmas, The White Gate by Nicolae Margineanu, Vali Hoteas Roxanne, Medal of Honor and Childs Pose, both productions by Calin Peter Netzer, Over the Hills, by Cristian Mungiu, Tudor Giurgius Of Snails and Men, Iulia Ruginas Love Building and America Here We Come, by Razvan Savescu.



    The Elvira Popescu Cinema Theater and the Romanian Peasant Museums Cinema Hall both hosted the festival, and the screenings were supported by audio description. The headsets handed in at the entrance were similar to those used for simultaneous interpretation. The festival was organized by the ‘Traveling Book Foundation in cooperation with the Romanian Film Promotion Association. Project manager and representative of the ‘Traveling Book Foundation Gabriela Dima told us more about the festival.



    Films accompanied by audio description have been on offer in Romania since 2007 and have been very well received by the visually impaired audience and not only. And that, because each year, starting 2009, at the Transylvania International Film festival each year weve had audio described screenings. But just one such screening per year is not enough, so we thought a much better promotion of such productions was needed, precisely because they have been very well received, both by the public at large – because it is very important for regular people to be aware of the fact that movies are also for the visually impaired – and then by the people involved in the filmmaking industry: producers, directors, film distributors, cinema theaters. And that because whenever they make a film, they should take into account the accessibility of that production right from the start, instead of making things easier afterwards. So, the idea is that when a film is made available on the market, the option for an audio description should also exist. That is why we thought a film festival tailored for the visually impaired, held in Bucharest, could enjoy a better promotion, could have a greater impact, nation-wide, so we decided to mount such a festival.



    Romanian movie producers were delighted when they heard of the project, based on the idea that life does not end when one loses ones sight, and one can continue to enjoy all the arts. Gabriela Dima, the manager of the project, is back with details:



    “The Romanian film festival has two reasons: cinema is having a good run, and people had a good response to our request to make movies more accessible. It was enough to make a phone call or send an e-mail and we got a positive response, and we didnt have to write too many contracts. We are just beginning, and for foreign movies it would have been additional work to secure licensing rights. We decided to have only Romanian movies at the first edition, also because we want to work primarily with the Romanian industry.



    The spoken description of the movies makes them accessible to both the visually impaired and people with poor eyesight. To the movie score they add a tape with additional explanation for understanding what is happening on the screen. Gabriela Dima explains:



    “Between the actors lines they insert elements such as facial expressions, gestures, sets, costumes, the relationships between the characters, any information that may lead to a better understanding of the movie. Because emotions are derived from sets, shadows, lighting, the director tries to use all of these to build the movie, and we have to show all of this with the audio description. I admit that complex scenes without spoken lines are the hardest to describe. I can give you an example: for the last minute of the movie Poarta Alba, it took 45 minutes of study. We watched that minute for almost an hour to manage to convey what the director wanted: to make the connection with the opening of the movie, to tie the story together at the end. This is what description is, the description appears only in the breaks between the actors lines, which is the reason for which in fact these screenings are for everyone.



    People who had seen a given movie told our interlocutor that they got a lot of things that they had missed the first time when they heard the description. Here is Gabriela Dima again:



    “We have improved accessibility for the film “Aferim, both because it was launched later, but we also wanted very much to have it in the festival. There is a scene there where the protagonist is tortured. And you have a tendency, when you describe it, because of the sound, to suppose that the people watching the movie, the villagers, have the same emotions as you do. We realized that we were very much bothered by the noise, the screams of the man under torture, reason for which we turned off the sound, and we watched only the picture, and saw the faces: those people, back in 1835, saw torture as a common spectacle, there was not a trace of compassion on their faces. If you hadnt had that audio description, you would have supposed that they feel what you feel, which is totally wrong. Here is where the audio description provides added value.



    The first edition of the festival did not grant awards, but starting next year, organizers want to initiate a competition between producers of movies with improved accessibility.