TIFF 2026, in Cluj-Napoca
The Transilvania International Film Festival takes place from June 12 to 21 in Cluj-Napoca.
Corina Sabău, 20.06.2026, 14:00
The Transilvania International Film Festival takes place from June 12 to 21 in Cluj-Napoca and this year is a special edition, as the festival celebrates its 25th anniversary. For ten days, the public has watched over 200 films screened in cinemas and unconventional venues, met filmmakers, and attended concerts and events dedicated to the film industry. Beyond the film screenings, the festival transforms the city into a living auditorium, with films screened in emblematic locations and events that encourage cultural dialogue and the discovery of new perspectives on contemporary film.
At the heart of the edition are the festival’s two international competitions. Twelve feature films by directors on their first or second film are competing for the Transilvania Trophy, and another ten documentaries enter the race for the What’s Up, Doc? section, dedicated to the latest international documentary productions.
The Romanian seslection also includes two productions that talk about the relationship between people and the places that shape them: “Malul Vânăt”, the debut of director Andreea Borţun, and the documentary “Hoinari prin munți”, by Cosmin Dumitrache. Andreea Borţun’s “Malul Vânăt” is based on the extensive research carried out in the villages of southern Romania and explores a reality rarely represented on screen. Cosmin Dumitrache’s “Hoinari prin munți”, follows two of the most famous Romanian mountaineers, Dinu and Marlene Mititeanu.
For Andreea Borţun, “Malul Vânăt” began as a personal journey back to the rural world from which she hails. For six years, the director documented the life of villages in the south of the country, trying to understand again a world she had once known, but which she now viewed with adult eyes. Andreea Borțun:
“The story developed in time, in a rather organic way. When, in 2017, I set off on my first trip to three villages in the south — three villages I didn’t know and where I had never been before — all I knew was that I was going to make a film, my first, that would talk about a world that I thought I knew, namely the world of the rural south. But the way I understood that world was more like that of a child or teenager, a world that I had distanced myself from. And then, in 2017, when I was 27 years old, I felt a strong need to turn to that world and try to look at it from an adult’s perspective. I also wanted to try, to a certain extent, to come to terms with it, because there was an inner tension that inevitably made me distance myself from it, just as perhaps we all distance ourselves from our formative worlds. It was a challenge for me to gain a much more complex understanding of how the rural mentality works today, given that these things are changing constantly.”
While “Malul Vânăt” explores the rediscovery of a rural world, the documentary “Hoinari prin munți” offers a glimpse into the lives of those who have built their entire lives around the mountains. Director Cosmin Dumitrache met Dinu and Marlene Mititeanu while he was finishing the documentary “România sălbatică.” Fascinated by their stories and books, he decided to turn the experiences of these two mountaineers into a film that goes beyond the boundaries of a simple alpine adventure.
“This was the essential ingredient of our meeting and, of course, of the film’s story: our shared passion for the mountains. Just as the mountains brought Dinu and Marlene together, they brought us together as well. After discovering Dinu’s books and reading them, I was fascinated by these people’s experiences. What fascinated me most was the way they told their stories, recounting all their experiences and the trails they’d travelled in the greatest possible detail. They inspired me with such a wonderful feeling that I wanted to retrace all the trails they’d taken myself. Since I loved their story so much, I thought I absolutely had to make a film about the two of them. Many discussions followed, and they instilled in me this love of viewing the mountains in a much more complex way. A mountain hike can be like a cultural journey: you discover places, learn about them, and in this way you come to know and feel the unique character of each place more deeply.
The TIFF.25 edition also features numerous special guests. Among the announced honourees is actress Anda Onesa, who will receive the Award of Excellence for her contribution to Romanian cinema. The festival also offers a glimpse into new trends in European cinema and emerging voices in contemporary film.
