30/04/2014 - Eight of the 12 competitors for the Transilvania Trophy are European productions

Romania's most important film event, the Transilvania International Film Festival (30 May-8 June), has announced the 12 first and second features in competition. Following two editions without a Romanian candidate for the Transilvania Trophy, Andrei Gruzsniczki's period drama Quod Erat Demonstrandum [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andrei Gruzsniczki
interview: Andrei Gruzsniczki
film profile] is in with a chance to impress the jury.

Bulgaria is represented by Maya Vitkova's Viktoria [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Maya Vitkova
film profile], already having been selected at the Sundance and Rotterdam Film Festivals; Poland by Tomasz Wasilewski's LGBT drama Floating Skyscrapers [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Tomasz Wasilewski
film profile]; and Norway by Eskil Vogt's Blind [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Eskil Vogt
interview: Eskil Vogt
film profile], selected for the Europa Cinemas Label at this year's Berlinale. Croatia has a chance to win awards with Nevio Marasovic's Vis-à-vis [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nevio Marasovic & Rakan Rus…
film profile] and the United Kingdom with Uberto Pasolini's second feature, Still Life [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Uberto Pasolini
film profile]. The Italian-German-Tanzanian co-production White Shadow [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Noaz Deshe
film profile], directed by Noaz Deshe and winner of the Luigi de Laurentiis Award in Venice last year, is also in competition, together with Rodrigo Sorogoyen's two-character crowd-funded love story, Stockholm [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]. 

Iran is represented by two films: Amir Toodehroosta's Paat, starring a German Shepherd; and Shahram Mokri's Fish and Cat, a thriller shot in a single take. Meanwhile, the United States’ presence is assured by Maximon Monihan's silent film The Voice of the Voiceless, and New Zealand’s by Max Currie's drama Everything We Loved, which will have its first European screening at the TIFF.

“What interested me when assembling this year’s TIFF competition were the different manifestations of extremism – visual or narrative – used by the directors of the 12 selected films. This doesn’t refer to provocation for the sake of provocation, but to the ambition of creating an original story, defying conventions or worn-out patterns,” commented TIFF artistic director Mihai Chirilov in a press release.

The awards will be announced during a gala ceremony held on 7 June.