The two sessions of the CNC contest from 2016 validated - in its five sections – over 70 winners that were allocated theoretically refundable credits of approximately 50,000,000 lei. Lots of money, but insufficient for making those films. Some of the validated projects will never get to the big screen, because they will not be able to have the necessary budgets or because the directors will discover other priorities. I heard
voices that said: “It`s been too long and I don`t believe in that project anymore”. Either way, the winning projects from 2016 will get in production and luckily, will be on the big screen in 2018.
For the time being, in 2017 the dices are rolled, or almost. There are a few films at the start line already; the first of them are
6.9 on Richter Scale / 6,9 pescara Richter by Nae Caranfil,
Fixer / Fixeur by Adrian Sitaru and
Ana, mon amour by Călin Netzer. Other films knock on the festivals doors and according to the tacit habit, the Romanian premiere is conditioned by the international career.There still are some films that may have a chance of being finished this year. Here are a few of them, in a random order:
The Birthday Party / Aniversarea by
Dan Chișu,
Summer Is Over / Vara s-a sfârșit by Radu Potcoavă,
Breaking News by Iulia Rugină,
Marița by Cristi Iftime,
Soldiers by Ivana Mladenovici,
The not so Happy Side of Things / Partea nu preafericită a lucrurilor by Emanuel Pârvu,
Charlton Heston by Andrei Crețulescu,
One Step Behind the Seraphims / Un pas în urma serafimilor by
Daniel Sandu,
That Trip We Took with Dad / La drum cu tata by Anca Miruna Lăzărescu. It seems we`ll have a year of feature film directorial debuts, which looks promising.
It`s a bit more complicated to foresee a profile for 2018, despite the 70 winners of last year`s contests. There are a few hardworking directors who have the privilege of being strongly supported by their producers. Therefore, we can count on the tandem
Radu Jude –
Ada Solomon, who won with the documentary
The Dead Country and the feature film
This Is What You Were Born for; then we have the couple
Cristina Iacob –
Adrian Sârbu, with their
Ramona, which is already in production. Then we find Dan Chișu who gave up his status of independent filmmaker and entered his project,
The Gendarme, at both sessions of the contest in 2016; each time he received a high score for the screenplay, but the first time he lost at the points ratings. Then here`s Daniel Sandu who will have
Cristian Mungiu as his producer for his feature film
Father Moves the Mountains, which is an important recommendation from the start. We also find
Radu Muntean who never rests on his oars and whose project is called
Alice T. These are only a few suppositions in an ocean of possibilities.
