The Transylvania International Film Festival awards Timothy Spall with the honor for life

The 22nd Transylvania International Film Festival kicked off on Friday evening in the city of Cluj-Napoca with the international premiere of northern comfort, a comedy directed by Icelandic director Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson, and with a tribute to the film’s star, Timothy Spall.

The famous British character actor, known for his roles in Mike Leigh Upside down AND Mr. Turnerby Cameron Crowe Vanilla heavenby Edward Zwick The last samuraiby Tom Hooper The king’s speech and the Harry Potter film, received this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the festival’s opening gala.

The Icelandic-British-German co-production Northern comfort is part of the huge Nordic Focus at this year’s festival, featuring more than 40 films from Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Finland and Sweden, as well as live music performances and cine-concerts. Some of the Nordic highlights include Ruben Östlund’s 2022 Palme d’Or winner Triangle of sadnessthe fantasy horror series by Lars von Trier The Exodus of the Kingdomthe third and final season of the iconic Danish TV series and Juho Kuosmanen’s 2021 Cannes Grand Prix-winning Finnish drama Compartment no. 6.

“Although burning social issues, such as class differences, inter-ethnic conflicts, migrations, drug use and prostitution are inevitable, the filmmakers perform the increasingly rare performance in today’s cinema of not abusing them, creating, with a admirable economy of means, impactful subversive stories and sophisticated storytelling, whose real stake lies elsewhere,” says Transylvania International Film Festival Artistic Director Mihai Chirilov of the official competition line-up. Among the twelve films by first-time directors there is also the first work from the Republic of Moldova: Carbon by Ion Bors, a clever farce about the troubled years of the Transnistria conflict in the early 1990s, which premiered last year in San Sebastian. Some other titles competing for the Transylvania Trophy are Croatian surreal drama The uncle by David Kapac and Andrija Mardesic, showing the influence of Michael Haneke and Yorgos Lanthimos; Brazilian comedy Coal by Carolina Markowitz, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last year; the Argentine thriller The Barbarians by Andrea Sala; Canadian drama Noémie says yes by Geneviève Albert and the explosive Czech drama Bangers by Adam Sedlák, shot entirely on an iPhone 12 Pro Max.

The new documentary of the festival What’s up doc?presented last year, will screen ten documentaries, nine of which are European productions and one US: Crows are white about a Muslim who goes on a spiritual journey to a Buddhist monastery.

“Regardless of the path they take, which can sometimes be mystifying, breaking the rules of the genre, the ten documentaries get to the truth each in their own way, whether it be anti-heroes with exaggerated ambitions, personal quests that never really end, or real portraits of niche communities built with the weapons of experimental cinema or fiction”, observes Mihai Chirilov.

Transilvania fest will also pay special tribute to the late masters of cinema Sidney Lumet and Jean-Luc Godard. Lumet, one of America’s most prolific filmmakers, who has worked with silver screen icons such as Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Katharine Hepburn, Sophia Loren, Paul Newman and Henry Fonda, will receive a six-film retrospective tribute including American classics such as 12 Angry Men, Serpico, Network and Dog Day Afternoon. French New Wave legend Godar will be honored with an eight-film tribute, including Godard classics such as Breathless, Alphaville AND Pierrot le fou.

In addition to Timothy Spall, the organizers also honor acclaimed Australian actor Geoffrey Rush and controversial American director and screenwriter Oliver Stone with lifetime achievement awards. The festival will screen Stone’s Natural born killersbased on a screenplay by Quentin Tarantino, e Born on the 4th of July , with Tom Cruise, in honor of Stone. The director will also present his latest film, the pro-nuclear documentary Nuclear nowpremiered in Venice last year.

Below are the full Transylvania International Film Festival competition and documentary line-ups.

Official competition

Bangers (Czech Republic)
Directed by Adam Sedlak

Carbon (Republic of Moldova, Romania)
Directed by Ion Borș

Coal (Brazil)
Directed by Carolina Markowicz

Child of anger (Nicaragua)
Directed by Laura Baumeister

Time for the family (Finland)
Directed by Tia Kouovo

Like a fish on the moon (Iran)
Directed by Dornaz Hajiha

Noémie says yes (Canada)
Directed by Genevieve Albert

The calm in the storm (Spain)
Directed by Alberto Gastesi

The Barbarians (Argentina)
Directed by Andrea Sala

The dynasty of sweets (Denmark)
Directed by Christian Lollike

The uncle (Croatia, Serbia)
Directed by David Kapac, Andrija Mardesic

At the entrance (Spain)
Directed by Alejandro Rojas, Juan Sebastián Vasquez

What’s up doc? competition

100 seasons (Sweden)
Directed by Giovanni Bucchieri

Hell69 (Colombia, Romania, France, Germany)
Directed by Theo Montoya

Crows are white(WE)
Directed by Ahsen Nadeem

Dogwatch (Greece, France)
Directed by Gregoris Rentis

Knit Island (France)
Directed by Ekiem Barbier, Guilhem Causse and Quentin L’Helgouac’h

Like an island(Swiss)
Directed by Tiziano Buchi

Smoke Sauna Sisterhood(Estonia, France, Iceland)
Directed by Anna Suggestions

Cathedral (Slovakia)
Directed by Denis Dobrovoda

The land you belong to(Italy, Belgium, Romania)
Directed by Elena Rebeca Carini

Outliers(France)
Directed by Raphael Mathie