30/04/2010

The Transylvania International Film Festival has just announced the 12 first or second features that will compete for the festival's trophies. The ninth edition of Romania's most popular film festival, held in Cluj from May 28-June 6, will present over 200 films.

Two Romanian films – Calin Netzer's Medal Of Honor [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and First of All, Felicia [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Melissa de Raaf and Razvan …
film profile] by Razvan Radulescu and Melissa de Raaf – have a chance to win the festival's top prize, the Transylvania Trophy, but the competition is strong, with contenders coming mostly from Europe.

The only “outsider” is Mundane History, by Thailand's Anocha Suwichakornpong, which won a Tiger Award in this year's Rotterdam film festival. Suwichakornpong's feature debut explores the relationship between a paralysed young man and his male nurse.

Daniel Sanchez Arevalo's second feature Fat People [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Daniel Sánchez Arévalo
Interview with Daniel Sánchez-Arévalo,…
film profile], which premiered in Venice Days 2009, will be the festival's comic relief. The director's first movie, DarkBlueAlmostBlack [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], won the Audience Award at TIFF 2007.

Poland has a chance at the festival awards with The Reverse [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Agata Buzek - actress
interview: Borys Lankosz
film profile], a dramedy about a spinster forced to find a husband by her mother and grandmother in the 1950s Warsaw. The film is director Borys Lankosz's first feature.

Holland has two titles in competition: Noud Heerkens' Last Conversation, a film shot in a single take about a woman who's having a last conversation with her ex-lover; and Urszula Antoniak's Dutch/Irish co-production Nothing Personal [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Urszula Antoniak
interview: Urszula Antoniak
film profile], about a Dutch woman who leaves everything behind and goes to Ireland.

Denmark's R, by Tobias Lindholm and Michael Noer, and A Rational Solution [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jörgen Bergmark
film profile] by Jorgen Bergmark are the two Scandinavian films in competition. Belgium is represented by Altiplano [+see also:
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trailer
film profile], by Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth, with Laurent Perreau's The Restless [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Serbian director Vladimir Paskaljevic's Devil's Town completing the line-up.

The festival's jury – which includes Romanian actress Monica Barladeanu (Francesca [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), Martin Blaney (Screen International), former Sundance Film Festival director Geoffrey Gilmore and Christine Dollhofer (director of the Linz Film Festival) – will announce the awards on June 5.