The Audience award for the Best Short film as part of
\nthe ANONIMUL 2023 International Independent Film Festival went to Nightpractice,
\na production by Bogdan Alecsandru. Initially, more than 100 films were entered the
\nshort film competition. For the final competition, film critic Ionut Mares selected
\n12 productions, most of which being signed by well-established names in the
\nRomanian filmmaking industry. The production by Bogdan Alecsandru was also shortlisted
\nfor the Romanian Film Days competition as part of TIFF (Transylvania International
\nFilm Festival) with the selection including some of the best Romanian recent
\nfilms.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Bogdan Alecsandru has recently earned his Master’s in Film
\ndirecting with the I.L Caragiale National Film and Drama University in Bucharest.
\nHe participated for the second time around in the Anonimul’s short film
\ncompetition. In 2022 he was in Sf\u00e2ntu Gheorghe, the locality hosting the
\nfestival each year, with his first short film, Our House.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We sat down and spoke
\nto Bogdan Alecsandru about the topic of his film and about the reactions of the
\naudience of Anonimul. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I have
\ntaken part in Anonimul for the 2nd year in a row, in the short film
\ncompetition, and it is also the 2nd year when the festival as such
\nis very special and very specific. I met people who booked their tickets months
\nin advance, so they can take part in the festival, whose venue we all know is in
\na rather isolated place. There isn’t very much to do in Sf\u00e2ntu Gheorghe and it
\nis extraordinary, people gathering there to watch movies, hence the very special
\natmosphere. I also turned up with my film and I was so happy I got there. For
\nme, it is very important to get in touch with the audience we have, a very
\nspecial and extremely dedicated audience. Actually, this award, the audience’s
\naward goes to the young filmmakers through voting, physically, as well as
\nonline, and, for me, that is a formative experience, I daresay. As part of the
\nfestival, every short
\nfilm enjoys two screenings. One of them also has a Q & A section and that is
\nactually the only time when you sit before your audience and have a direct
\ninteraction with them. The reactions seemed quite enthusiastic, to me, and I
\nwas happy about it as I wanted to make a short film meant to be quite audience-friendly,
\nwith horror- like elements, even with thriller elements, I daresay, in the most
\ncommon acceptance of the word. That is why I expected my film to enjoy
\nappreciation, yet I did not expect this award. Because, even if it is rather a pop
\nfilm, rather audience-oriented, it has nonetheless a quite sensitive topic, for
\nRomania, the relation between two people of the same sex.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Bogdan Alecsandru expressed
\nhis interest mainly in queer cinema, which in Romania can still be viewed as
\nsome sort of niche cinema. Besides, he takes his time to make his debut with a
\nfeature film as, for the time being, he is passionate about the short genre which
\nhe considers he did not explore enough. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In Romania,
\nqueer cinema is rather scarcely represented, we’re speaking about films telling
\nstories focusing on same-sex relations. Notwithstanding, this kind of cinema had
\nbeen tackled before, yet the first Romanian queer film had a tardier release,
\nin 2006, when Tudor Giurgiu made Love Sick. I believe there are very many
\nstories of this kind, untold, or which did not enjoy the opportunity of being
\ntold, until recently, and I am interested to make the topic known to the audiences,
\nto that effect. Right now I am interested in this area of the short film, which
\ncan definitely be viewed as an exercise or as some sort of practice. Yet I view the short film as a
\ngenre n itself, a very precious one, so in the coming years, at least, I intend
\nto explore its specificity. Which means I avoid making short films that rather look
\nlike a beginning or a demo for a feature film. And that, for the time being, at
\nleast. Later on, I do not know what I will do as I am still quite young and I
\nchange my focus rather fast. Now, speaking about Romanian cinema, it seems to
\nbe it has seen auspicious moments for some time now and, when at Anonimul, I
\nwas really happy to find myself included in a selection mostly made of women
\nfilmmakers. Many of those women filmmakers are friends of mine and I am happy
\nfor their career. I also find it a good thing, the fact that commercial films
\nare on the rise, the fact that this is a growing phenomenon. What I have in mind
\nare such films as Teambuilding, whose box office in theatres was rather high, which
\ndoesn’t happen very often in the case of Romanian movies. I find that a good
\nthing also because this genre could change Romanians’ perspective on Romanian
\ncinema a little bit, but, obviously, that
\nis a good thing also from a commercial perspective. I think a functional
\nfilmmaking industry should have both film genres, the art and the commercial
\nfilms . <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
On the cast for Nightpractice
\nare Andrei Giurgea, Tiberius Zavelea, Gabriel Spahiu, Marc Titieni, Rare\u0219
\nUlaru, Hora\u021biu B\u0103cil\u0103, Vlad Tudoran, Robi Brage, Antonio-Daniel Petrica. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The new wave of Romanian cinema, going from strength to strength<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":123226,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44685],"tags":[34505,58914,44871,29241,37169,45016],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-622360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-of-culture","tag-award","tag-box","tag-feature","tag-film","tag-office","tag-short"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n