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Hungarian film director Béla Tarr, winner of the Kossuth and Béla Balázs awards, will be guest of honor at the 24th Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF), in Cluj-Napoca (Romania). He is set to receive a lifetime achievement award on June 13 at the festival, which is sponsored by the European Commission.
Festival director Tudor Giurgiu expressed his delight at welcoming one of the world’s most renowned directors to Cluj-Napoca, whom they have wanted to invite for many years. He said:
Béla Tarr will receive the TIFF Lifetime Achievement Award at the closing gala and will hold a workshop for young filmmakers on Saturday, June 21st.”
In addition to Sátántangó, the film festival will also screen the Hungarian director’s most significant films.
The festival director announced that the 200 or so films to be screened at this year’s TIFF were selected from more than a thousand entries, and that over the ten days, audiences from 53 countries will be able to see 172 feature films and 28 short films. The focus will be on Estonian films.
Artistic director Mihai Chirilov said of that the 12 films selected for the fiction program depict the chaos that dominates our everyday lives, and many of them will be screened in Cluj-Napoca for the first time. Regarding the Romanian films featured at the festival, he said that this year’s selection was made from more than 200 entries, including 50 feature films and 150 short films.
The 24th TIFF will also feature two new sections: Teen Spirit, aimed at teenagers and judged by members of Generation Z, and Tomorrow is Fear, which will screen films about dystopias. These will include works highlighting the dangers of the digital world and artificial intelligence. Several film classics will also be screened at the festival, and there will be a number of accompanying events, including an exhibition by photographer Tamás Hajdú from Baia Mare.
The festival takes place at various locations throughout Cluj-Napoca. Screenings are held indoors at cinemas, while a large outdoor screen is set up in the city center for audiences to enjoy popular films under the open sky. Additionally, special screenings are hosted at the nearby Bánffy Castle in Bontida, just outside Cluj-Napoca.
This year, a special event is planned for June 19, at the Issa Resort near the salt mine in Turda, where there will be a horse show followed by a screening of the Oscar-nominated Argentine film Kill de Jockey.
Over the years, renowned actors from around the world have traveled to Cluj-Napoca to attend the festival. Notably, American actor Nicolas Cage (Leaving Las Vegas, National Treasure); British actor Timothy Spall (Mr. Turner, Harry Potter series); and French-American actor Jean-Marc Barr (The Big Blue).
Coincidentally, this is not the first time a Hungarian director has been honored at TIFF. In 2021, Oscar-winning director István Szabó received a lifetime achievement award, premiered his then latest feature film Zárójelentés (Final Report), and led a workshop for film enthusiasts.
Featured photo: Hungary Today
