The filmmakers, film journalists and critics are invited to submit their projects for the 6th edition of the
Alex. Leo Șerban Fellowship, given during the Transilvania International Film festival (TIFF) which will take place from May 29 to June 7, 2020 in Cluj-Napoca. Created in order to pay tribute to one of the most important Romanian film critics, the 2,500 EURO worth fellowship is offered in partnership with Conceptual Lab.
This year the Alex. Leo Șerban Fellowship is open to the filmmakers that are at their first or second feature film and to young film journalists and critics. The projects that are welcome are: fiction or documentary feature film projects in development or in pre-production and editorial projects which focus on cinema (book, magazine, website, vlog, blog, TV show, etc). The participants should be under 35 years old.
The submission files should include the description of the project, a letter of intent and a CV and they can be submitted
online until March 10, 2020.
The winner will be awarded during the 19th edition of the TIFF festival and it intends to contribute later to the making of the project itself, by means of the programs it has. The winner of the 2019 Fellowship was Lina Vdovîi with her project
Il Bel Canto, a deeply personal project, a documentary about finding her father and about the abuses he suffered as an immigrant in Italy. A special mention was given to Iosif Prodan for dokumentar.ro, an editorialist project.
A 1,000 Euro worth special mention – offered by Conceptual Lab and TIFF – will award the performance of a Romanian actor under 35, who made him/herself noticed with a part played in a short film or feature film in 2019. The short list of the proposals for this special mention will be soon announced on
www.tiff.ro. In 2019 the actor who received this award was Alex Bogdan, for his part in
I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians / Îmi este indiferent dacă în istorie vom intra ca barbari (directed by
Radu Jude).
The Alex. Leo Șerban Fellowship, initiated by the Association for the Romanian Film Promotion and the Romanian Film Initiative was given for the first time in 2012 at TIFF, as a tribute to one of the most important Romanian film critics and a dear friend of the festival, Alex. Leo Șerban.
For the first three editions the fellowship was exclusively destined to the young journalists and critics; the winners enjoyed a professional development opportunity in the creative context of the Making Waves Romanian Film Festival in New York, organized by the Romanian Film Initiative. Starting with 2018, it addresses also the film directors and script writers.
The 6th edition takes place in partnership with Conceptual lab, a project of the Contemporary Cultural Identity Association.