27/05/2024 - Four films in development from the selection originate from Romania, another two come from Turkey, while the rest hail from Moldova, Ukraine, Serbia and Hungary

Director Svetislav Dragomirović, who is taking part with Termites Have Wings of Approximately the Same Length

The Transilvania International Film Festival (14-24 June, Cluj-Napoca) is set to host the 11th edition of Transilvania Pitch Stop (TPS) on 20 June. As usual, ten selected projects will be presented in front of a gathering of industry professionals, including producers, distributors, sales agents and representatives of film funds.

TPS is renowned for discovering and nurturing film projects from Romania and neighbouring countries, especially those in the Black Sea region. This year's selection emphasises cross-border cooperation and European co-productions, with eligible countries including Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, Hungary, Moldova, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine. Since its inception, TPS has developed over 100 projects, many going on to receive accolades at major international festivals. The ten contenders will be locking horns for the usual prizes, provided by TIFF’s industry partners: the Chainsaw Europe Post-production Award, which grants €25,000 in post-production services; the TPS Development Award, offered by Avanpost Media to the tune of €5,000; the Moldovan National Film Center Award, worth €1,500; the VILLA KULT Development Award, providing €500 in cash; and, finally, the Connecting Cottbus Co-Production Market's cocoLAB Awards intended for East-West emerging producers, which traditionally invite the winner to a five-day residency.

Esteemed professionals will again offer guidance, with script editor Christian Routh providing tailored script consulting for five projects, and pitching consultant Agathe Berman coaching all participants to ensure compelling pitches for potential partners and financiers. Both film experts have developed a long-term collaboration with the pitching platform.

This year’s selected projects include Otto Banovits’ Divorce Room (Hungary), which follows a modern married couple as they explore the depths of their relationship, aided by a 500-year-old “love prison”. Ivan Naniev’s Winemaker’s Daughter (Moldova) is a gripping drama revolving around family and legacy. It tells the story of a Parisian lawyer who inherits her father's Moldovan winery and must negotiate conflicting interests and a new way of life in the picturesque countryside. The Serbian project with the unusual title Termites Have Wings of Approximately the Same Length, to be directed by Svetislav Dragomirović, features a couple fighting a termite infestation while deciding to terminate an unplanned pregnancy. Ukrainian filmmaker Valeria Sochyvets’ project Curtain is about a concertmaster at the peak of her career who battles her addiction to a codependent relationship with her partner, the orchestra’s conductor.

Both projects from Turkey unfold in the coming-of-age genre: Ferit Kilic’s Dancing Angels focuses on a 15-year-old who feels closest to his true self while dancing, but who succumbs to violence and transforms into the person he despises the most; and Alkim Ozmen’s My Happy Family revolves around an 11-year-old boy who secretly films moments of joy in his abusive family to impress the girl he loves as part of a school project.

The host country, Romania, which is also the best represented, offers a variety of genres. Ioana Mischie’s dystopian Die, Please is set in a society where everyone has become immortal, and dying has become a luxury; and Răzvan Marinescu’s Kid Hazard is a hilarious adventure where youngsters discover the wild side of friendship and teamwork, filled with laughs and life lessons. The other two Romanian projects go back to the past: Cristian Pascariu’s A Flower Is Not a Flower follows 11-year-old Ana, who escapes from a communist Romanian orphanage to the dark sewers of Bucharest; and Mihai Dragolea’s Grained takes place in the eastern plains of Romania in 1946, with two women as main characters who, while selling handwoven rugs, are confronted with a hallucination, a herd of goats and the killing of a boatsman, which sends them down a path of no return.

Here is the full list of selected projects:

Divorce Room – Otto Banovits
Producers: Anna Sípos, Veronika Gál
Production company: Stranger Films (Hungary)

Winemaker’s Daughter – Ivan Naniev
Producer: Sergiu Scobioala
Production company: Shepherd Company (Moldova)

Die, Please – Ioana Mischie
Producer: Andra MacMasters
Production company: STUDIOSET (Romania)

A Flower Is Not a Flower – Cristian Pascariu
Producers: Adriana Răcășan, Antra Gaile, Liga Gaisa
Production companies: Point Film (Latvia), Air Productions (Romania)

Grained – Mihai Dragolea
Producer: Velvet Moraru
Production company: ICON Production (Romania)

Kid Hazard – Răzvan Marinescu
Producer: Irina Enea
Production company: Baking Films (Romania)

Termites Have Wings of Approximately the Same Length – Svetislav Dragomirović
Producers: Nevena Savić, Svetislav Dragomirović
Production companies: Cinnamon Films, Gray Tree Film (Serbia)

Dancing Angels – Ferit Kilic
Producers: Diloy Gülün, Beste Yamalioglu
Production company: Karma Films (Turkey)

My Happy Family – Alkim Ozmen
Producer: Alkim Ozmen
Production company: Meraklı Hayalperver (Turkey)

Curtain – Valeria Sochyvets
Producer: Inna Lastochkina
Production company: Contemporary Ukrainian Cinema (Ukraine)