04/06/2013 - The programme aims to transform young film aficionados into tomorrow's film professionals

The Transylvania International Film Festival (May 31 - June 9), Romania’s biggest film event, last year increased the number of educational programmes with Transylvania Talent Lab (TTL), which covers every step of project development, film production and also film marketing and distribution. The second edition of TTL started on June 2 and over five days will teach different aspects of film and event production to 16 young filmmakers or film aficionados, expected to become Romania’s next film professionals.

Structured in three working modules, the program uses seminars, meetings, master classes and special screenings to teach its students the secrets of writing screenplays, pitching them to producers, and securing financing for cinema projects (either films or events). Case studies with film professionals will cover directing, editing and other aspects of film production, while the last module focuses on organizing film events and on film distribution. Even crowd funding, something pretty new in the Romanian film landscape, is covered by a TTL seminar.

Among the program’s teaching guests there are famous DoP Ed Lachman, whose Paradise trilogy is the star of a marathon-screening in TIFF’s No Limit sidebar, Nik Powell, director of the UK’s National Film and Television School and vice chairman of the board of the European Film Academy, Adrian Enescu, Romania’s most import film score composer and also recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award at TIFF 2013, and Sebastian Lelio, whose fourth feature Gloria [+see also:
trailer
film profile] won the Silver Bear for Best Actress (Paulina Garcia) at this year’s Berlinale. French producer Jean de Forets, Berlinale Talent Campus consultant Sirkka Moller and sales specialist Marta Lumperova are among the trainers of TTL.

TTL is only the tip of the educational iceberg at TIFF. The festival also organizes the 11^th edition of Let’s Go Digital (LGD), a program meant to teach teenagers how to make films. For young children there is EducaTIFF, a program which uses special screenings, debates and workshops in order to improve young children's media literacy.