For the first time ever, the Romanian film industry professionals had to choose between bowing to a true Romanian blockbuster or rewarding a very relevant film and, fortunately, they opted for the latter. With an alleged budget of €20 million (with sources never fully disclosed), Serge Ioan Celebidachi’s The Yellow Tie, a biographical film about the life of the director’s father, the famed Romanian conductor Sergiu Celibidache, was almost unanimously rejected by the local film critics, while the audiences fully embraced it: around 514,000 cinemagoers flocked to theatres to watch the story of the conductor, portrayed at different stages of his life by several actors, including John Malkovich.

Instead, the 900 film professionals voting for the Gopos chose Radu Jude’s Kontinental ’25 as the year’s Best Film, leaving The Yellow Tie with mostly so-called technical awards, aside from — somewhat surprisingly — the prize for Best Score.

Among this edition’s “Big Five”, only the Best Leading Actor award went to The Yellow Tie, for Ben Schnetzer’s performance as a young Celibidache. Igor Cobileanski’s Comatogen won two of the major prizes — Best Director and Best Screenplay (shared with Alin Boeru) — while Kontinental ’25 also took home the Best Actress award for Eszter Tompa.

Only five films won all the fiction feature categories, which may add fuel to the fire for those arguing that the Gopos have become too large an awards ceremony for such a small national industry. Besides the aforementioned titles, Ioana Mischie’s Catane won Best First Feature and Best Cinematography, Mihai Mincan’s Milk Teeth earned Marina Palii the Best Supporting Actress award and Marius Leftărache the prize for Best Score, while Tata by Lina Vdovîi and Radu Ciorniciuc won Best Documentary. Lastly, Oliver Laxe’s acclaimed Sirāt took home the award for Best European Film.

The complete list of award winners:

Best Film
Kontinental ’25 - Radu Jude (Romania/Brazil/Switzerland/UK/Luxembourg)

Best Director
Igor Cobileanski – Comatogen (Romania)

Best First Feature
Catane - Ioana Mischie (Romania/Italy)

Best Documentary
Tata - Lina Vdovîi, Radu Ciorniciuc (Romania/Germany/Netherlands)

Best Lead Actress
Eszter Tompa - Kontinental ’25

Best Lead Actor
Ben Schnetzer - The Yellow Tie (Romania)

Best Supporting Actress
Marina Palii – Milk Teeth (Romania/France/Denmark/Greece/Bulgaria)

Best Supporting Actor
Gabriel Spahiu - Kontinental '25

Best Screenplay
Igor Cobileanski, Alin Boeru - Comatogen

Best Cinematography
George Dăscălescu - Catane

Best Editing
Mircea Olteanu - The Yellow Tie

Best Production Design
Vlad Vieru - The Yellow Tie

Best Costumes
Alessandro Lai, Alina Cristina Dan, Oana Gorunescu, Carmen Moldovan – The Yellow Tie

Best Make-up and Hairstyling
Lynda Armstrong, Margo Ștefan, Bianca Boeroiu, Gabriela Cretan, Clara Tudose - The Yellow Tie

Best Sound
Constantin Fleancu, Cristinel Șirli – The Yellow Tie

Best Score
Marius Leftărache - Milk Teeth

Best New Hope
Emma Ioana Mogoş (Milk Teeth)

Best Short Film
Nebunul - Igor Cobileanski (Romania)

Best Animated Short Film
The Magician - Bogdan Mureşanu (Romania)

Best European Film
Sirāt - Oliver Laxe (Spain/France)