Making Waves 2016 – sold-out screenings to Romanian films

     Last week saw the ending of the 11th Edition of the Romanian Film Festival in New York, Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema, initiated by Romanian Film Initiative and hosted this year by the prestigious Burns Film Center din Pleasantville, New York.

     Almost all of the eight Festival screenings were sold out, a most notable outcome considering the intimidating competition in the parallel halls of the Centre, December being the month when the Oscar-aspiring movies are released: La La Land, Loving and Manchester by the Sea.
     Making Waves started on 1 December, in a packed hall, with Bacalaureat/Graduation by Cristian Mungiu, with the leading actress, Maria Drăguș, and the Romanian Minister of Culture, Corina Șuteu, in attendance. The Romanian Minister of Culter, as former director of the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York, set up this event in 2006 and took care that it has been carried on ever since 2012. The debut of the Festival came only after several days since, under the coordination of Minister Șuteu, a new cinematography law was passed designed to reform the failing system of public support granted to Romanian cinema production, and also to its promoting and distribution, to Romanian audience access to film and to the preservation and capitalising upon our national cinema heritage.
     Sold-out were also registered to Sieranevada by Cristi Puiu (Romania's proposal to the Oscar for Foreign-language film), to Inimi cicatrizate/Scarred Hearts by Radu Jude, Două lozuri/Two Lottery Tickets by Paul Negoescu (preceded by the feature film O noapte în Tokoriki/A Night in Tokoriki by Roxana Stroe) and, last but not least, the closing film, Câini/Dogs by Bogdan Mirică, in the magnetic presence of Vlad Ivanov, again extraordinary in a bad guy role after his memorable “negatives” in Snowpiercer and 4 luni, 3 săptămâni și 2 zile/4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days.
     The most heated meeting with both the American and Romanian audience took place after the controversial screenings of Ilegitim/Illegitimate by Adrian Sitaru and United States of Love by Tomasz Wasilewski, with cameraman Oleg Mutu signing the cinematography. The protagonists of Illegitimate, Alina Grigore and Robi Urs, hold their ground admirably to a cross-fire of questions from the viewers, for almost an hour.
     Details at: www.filmetc.org