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Tag: Golden Bear

  • Romanian Radu Jude’s film wins The Golden Bear from Berlinale competition

    Romanian Radu Jude’s film wins The Golden Bear from Berlinale competition

    The international jury made up of six directors, winners of the Berlinale Grand Trophy themselves, including the Romanian Adina Pintilie, announced, late last week, the winner of the International Film Festival in Berlin, the first European festal held this year: Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn by the Romanian Radu Jude. Subtitled ‘A sketch for a popular film, the Romania – Luxembourg – Croatia – the Czech Republic coproduction analyses the relations between individuals and society, starting from the consequences of an amateur porno video uploaded by a secondary school teacher to a specialized website.

    The film was premiered at the 71st Berlinale, held online, because of the pandemic. Without a red carpet and without packed screening halls, this year’s edition enjoyed however a special format: it was divided in two. Therefore, the Berlin festival, traditionally held over a period of 10 days in February, was postponed for march and moved into the virtual space.

    The Industry Event stage was held over March 1st to 5th, and at the Summer Special Event will be held between the 9th and 20th of June. In the second stage, the lovers of the seventh art will have the opportunity to watch the movies selected for the 2021 edition in the Berlin cinema halls, with the film-makers attending. The award ceremony will also be held as part of the Summer Special event.

    Until then, those who want to watch Radu Jude’s film Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn should know that, from the jury’s point of view, it is an elaborated film, but at the same time wild, smart and childish, geometrical and vibrant, imprecise in the best sense of the word. The Romanian film-maker has become a common presence at the Berlinale, as he has participated in several editions along the years. In fact, in 2015, Radu Jude won the Golden Bear for Aferim!.

    Excited at the news that he’s won the Golden Bear this year too, Radu Jude has admitted, though, that, getting older, one learns how to relax and how to take things as they come. You don’t know in advance which the winning film will be, the idea is to do what you want, to do something that is relevant to you. Definitely, this award helps for the coming ones too, Radu Jude has said. Now he is waiting for the second part of the festival, in order to receive the trophy as such. (M.I.)

  • Romanian Adina Pintilie’s feature film “Touch Me Not” wins Berlin’s Golden Bear

    Romanian Adina Pintilie’s feature film “Touch Me Not” wins Berlin’s Golden Bear

    Touch Me Not, which follows the story of a woman who can’t bear to be touched and of other people searching for intimacy, has been chosen from a field of nineteen competitors at the Berlinale, the first of the year’s major European movie festivals. The jury of the festival was led by the German director Tom Tykwe.

    Shot between 2015 and 2017, Touch Me Not has a mixed cast of professional and non-professional actors from all over Europe, from Romania to Iceland, Germany, Bulgaria, France and the UK. The director of the Berlin Festival, Dieter Kosslick, received the film with enthusiasm and said he was impressed with it.

    Adina Pintilie: It was an act of trust from the organisers, but I’m not sure our film is an exception. In any case, we were greeted with open arms and we are grateful for this. We worked a lot on this film, it took us about seven years to make. We began in 2011 and everything went well abroad in terms of funding, but then we couldn’t get any funding in Romania, at least not until our international success became known. So it was a beautiful project, but difficult from many points of view.

    A combination of fiction, documentary and visual art and a daring experiment in terms of content and cinematographic language, Touch Me Not is a personal exploration of the idea of intimacy and of the human need for authentic contact. The film is an attempt to discover the different layers of intimacy. Intimacy is full of dangers. The obverse of love can be hate, aggression, and intolerance. These are all sides of the same complex reality, says Adina Pintilie:

    Adina Pintilie: I believe the way in which we experience intimacy is influenced by many different factors, such as education, the culture we live in, our background. However, the practical reality of the interaction with others is much more complex. So this is how my film was born, out of curiosity. I realised I didn’t know much about intimacy and human nature, and I began to rediscover some of the sometimes surprising ways of experiencing intimacy. I worked both with professional actors and with non-professionals, people who had never worked in cinema before but who were interested in this area of research. The result is a combination between their personal stories and fictional elements. We experimented with pschycodrama and tried out many things that highlighted precisely the mechanisms we often use in our interaction with the others without realising it. In fact, all characters are faced with this conflict between the need for intimacy and the fear of entering a relationship of interdependence, afraid that they may become too vulnerable.

    Touch Me Not is not Adina Pintilie’s first film on the border between fiction, documentary and the visual arts. Her previous productions are viewed by critics as a unique phenomenon on the local cinematographic landscape, standing out for their profoundly personal visual style, bold experimentation with the cinematographic language and an uncompromising exploration of human psychology. We asked Adina Pintilie what is the most important thing for her when she creates a story:

    Adina Pintilie: I’m always very open-minded when I begin a new project and the form it takes is often the result of its content. In this case I began with a script that was more of a general sketch for my research. There was an initial story and I chose my cast based on it, but the cast I ended up with was more suitable to a documentary film than a feature film. We tried to get to know the person in front of us, we worked with music that means a lot to these people and we worked with memories and with dreams. Having found the right people, I then began this experimentation in intimacy, using fiction as a structure that allowed us to work with elements from reality. Given that intimacy is a difficult area for many of us, including the participants in the project, the fact that I used a fictional structure created a safe zone around the project. This means that no one in my crew knew what is personal and what is fictional in the material we used in our work with the actors.

    Touch Me Not is the first part of a future multi-platform project supported, among others, by the Pompidou Centre in Paris, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw and the Spinnerei Art Centre in Leipzig. Exploring, beyond taboos, the essential role that intimacy plays in human development, Touch Me Not aims to open new paths, to educate, to promote tolerance and freedom of expression, to create a space for (self)reflection, making viewers to reassess their own ideas about intimacy, Adina Pintilie also said.


    Her most recent medium-length film called Oxygen was part of the official selection of the Rotterdam Film Festival in 2010 and was nominated for the best short-film award and best young talent award of the Romanian film awards in 2011. Journal #2, a Dutch-Romanian coproduction, Adina Pintilie’s latest short-film, won the ZONTA best film award by a female director at the International Short Film Festival in Oberhauseun in 2013, while her previous short film, Balastiera #186, was selected in the auteur short film category at the Locarno Film Festival in 2008.(Translated by C. Mateescu, updated by D. Vijeu)

  • Romanian production “Ana, mon amour“ scoops award at the Berlinale

    Romanian production “Ana, mon amour“ scoops award at the Berlinale

    The award went to film editor Dana Bunescu. The production has been in Romanian theatres as of March 3rd, shortly after its international premiere. Having won the Golden Bear with “Child’s Pose”, filmmaker Calin Peter Nezter has returned on the big screen with a new film, which gives an insight into the dynamics of the most significant relationships in the life of a man.



    “Ana, mon amour” is the analysis of a love story, an atypical insight into the most tense and delicate moments in the life of a couple. Călin Peter Netzer, Cezar Paul Bădescu and Iulia Lumânare wrote the screenplay, inspired from Cezar Paul Bădescu’s novel, “Luminiţa, mon amour”. However, Cezar Paul Badescu made it clear that the film was Netzer’s, and the novel was just the starting point. We asked Cezar-Paul Badescu how he felt after the first screening.



    Cezar Paul Badescu: ”It’s kind of odd, because although I knew what was going on in the film, I was ravished when I first saw it. Actually, this is a film that ‘digs’ into those who see it. It invites spectators to an inner investigation, to go very deep into themselves. The film spins the yarn of a story which is completely different from that of the novel. Filmmaker Calin Peter Netzer opted for a different approach, he chose to pursue something different from what I was interested in my novel. In earnest, the basic storyline is the same. It’s about a love relationship that has an ingredient which makes it special, a disease of the nervous system. And that condition, even though it is not very serious, takes its toll on the couple’s relationship. It’s not about the book being made into a film, the screenplay and the film only start off from my novel. When I wrote the screenplay, Calin Peter Netzer selected a couple of scenes from my book, we wrote them into the screenplay and then, together, we developed some stories, you can’t find in the book and which are mainly Calin’s stories.“



    Actress Diana Cavaliotti, known for her roles in ‘Recollections from the Golden Age — 2” and the TV series ‘One step Ahead’ and ‘A Mad Week’, has worked with filmmaker Călin Peter Netzer for the first time in her career.



    Diana Cavaliotti: ”The experience I had was shattering. It took a long time to shoot the film, rehearsals also took a very long time, about three months, and everything was so intense that I felt each and every scene as if they were my life. For six months of my life I was busy with ‘Ana, mon amour’ from morning till night, round the clock. Building up such a part means placing yourself into some rather difficult situations. Then there’s the way I worked with the director of the film, Călin Peter Netzer, and everything I did in preparation for the film. For instance, I had to see a psychoanalyst. These are things that really take you out of any comfort zone that you might have. And I believe that this film managed, and it is good that it did so, to shatter all the comfort away.”



    Apart from Diana Cavallioti and Mircea Postelnicu, the cast of “Ana, mon amour” also includes Adrian Titieni, Vlad Ivanov, Carmen Tănase, Vasile Muraru, Tania Popa and Igor Caras Romanov. For actor Mircea Postelnicu, the role he played in “Ana, mon amour” was also his first lead role in a feature film.



    Mircea Postelnicu: ”I gained a lot from that experience and especially from the encounter with Calin, Iulia, Diana and the topic itself. For me, it meant a lot and I realized it opened up some valves that had for long been shut, and I’m referring to the psycho-analytical side of the film. Very briefly, the story is about a relationship which is a bit unhealthy and sick since it very much relies on some projections and thoughts Ana and Toma have nurtured, building up their relationship on a totally unsound foundation. It’s about some sort of a quest that both characters have initiated, in a bid to regain their balance and get back to the basics of that relation and to the truth lying behind it. And in a way, in the long run the story is everybody’s quest, a quest into one’s self. It’s about a quest and a path the two characters take and about how each of them gets their answers and reaches their balance “



    “Ana, mon amour” is Călin Peter Netzer’s fourth feature film. He is the author of Maria (2003), which received an award at the prestigious Locarno Film Festival, ‘The Medal of Honor’ (2009), winner of the Silver Alexander Award in Thessalonica, ‘Child’s Pose’ (2013) a production with the biggest box office in the past 15 years. “Ana, mon amour” is a Parada Film Production, co-produced with Augenschein Filmproduktion (Germany) and Sophie Dulac Productions (France).





  • February 18, 2017

    February 18, 2017

    DIPLOMACY – The Romanian Foreign Minister, Teodor Meleşcanu, is taking part until Sunday in the 53rd Munich Security Conference. He will present Romanias stand on the European and global security situation and will emphasise the importance of the trans-Atlantic relations and of the role of NATO and the EU in the current international context. On Friday, on the side-lines of the Conference, the Romanian official had talks with his French counterpart, Jean-Marc Ayrault, who invited him to Paris in the forthcoming period, an invitation accepted by Melescanu. The Romanian FM also had a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Pavlo Klimkim, with whom he discussed regional developments. The Munich Security Conference is a prestigious security forum, which traditionally brings together leaders and decision-makers in the field of security and defence from around the world.



    MUNICH SECURITY CONFERENCE – The Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, has today called on the world powers, including the US, not to abandon international cooperation against the new challenges to global security. Addressing the Munich Security Conference, Merkel emphasised that multi-national organisations like the EU, NATO and the UN provided a vital framework for addressing the refugee crisis and Islamist terrorism. The German Chancellor also said the European Unions relations with Russia remained challenging, but that cooperation with Moscow was still important in the fight against Islamist terrorism. Attending the Conference, the US Vice-President, Mike Pence, pointed out, in the first major foreign policy statement of the new American Administration, that Washington would support NATO and stand by Europe, even as it looked for new ways to cooperate with Russia.



    BUSINESS – The government is the main promotion element for Romania, because American investors look at taxes, stability, predictability and efficiency, and the competition between the countries in the region is tough, said Eric Stewart, head of the American-Romanian Business Council (AMRO). In an interview to the Romanian news agency Agerpres, Stewart said there are investment opportunities in Romania for the American companies in fields like defence, energy, agriculture and healthcare, considering that we will see a shift in focus of the Trump administration towards Europe. He announced that the American-Romanian Business Council would organise an economic mission in Romania in late March, in which 10-12 major American companies will take part, some of them already present in the Romanian market.



    AIRPORTS – Romania tops the rankings of the European airports with the quickest increase in passenger flows in 2016, according to a report of the Airports Council International (ACI Europe). The first places are held by the airports in Oradea (with an increase of nearly 500% in passenger numbers compared to 2015) and Iasi (with more than 130%). Third comes the “Aurel Vlaicu International Airport, the second-largest airport in Bucharest, with 122% more passengers than in 2015. Airports Council International Europe is an association representing more than 500 airports in 45 countries.



    ROMANIA-US RELATIONS – The USA appreciates the strategic partnership with Romania and pays increasing attention to the security developments at the Black Sea, says the chair of the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee in the US House of Representatives, the Republican Rob Wittman. In a meeting in Washington with the Romanian Ambassador George Maior, the US Congressman appreciated Bucharests commitment to trans-Atlantic security, including its hosting of the ballistic missile defence facility at the Deveselu Base. Rob Wittman added that Washington firmly supported the continuation of the European Reassurance Initiative and a relevant rotating presence of American troops on NATOs eastern flank.




    BERLINALE – The award ceremony of the 67th Berlin International Film Festival takes place tonight. Selected in the official competition for the Golden Bear trophy is, among other works, the film “Ana, mon amour, by the Romanian director Călin Peter Netzer, which was screened on Friday night. Netzer won the Golden Bear in Berlin in 2013, with his film, Childs Pose. The Romanian actor Tudor Istodor was also nominated in this years “shooting stars category, while the director Ilinca Călugăreanu, actor Alexandru Potocean, director Ioana Mischie, producer Andra Popescu, camera operator Carmen Tofeni, film distributor Matei Truţă and script writer Monica Stan are also representing Romania in the ‘Berlinale Talents’ Programme. “The Dear, a project by Bogdan George Apetri, also took part in the Coproduction Market section.




    TENNIS – The Romanian Horia Tecău and the Dutch Jean-Julien Rojer will play on Saturday the doubles semi-finals of the Rotterdam tournament in the Netherlands, which has over 1.7 million euros in total prize money. They will be facing the Dutch Wesley Koolhof and Matwe Middelkoop. In the quarter-finals, Tecău and Rojer outplayed Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez of Spain, seeded 2nd in the tournament, 6-4 / 6-4. The Romanian-Dutch pair won the Rotterdam tournament in 2015.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)