Starting in late 2020, The Association for the Development of Romanian Film (ADRF) became the representative for the Romanian film industry
Starting in late 2020, The Association for the Development of Romanian Film (ADRF) became the representative for the Romanian film industry, as part of the European Film Promotion organization, the prestigious organization that represents the European movie industries. After a year of absence, Romania is once again present as part of the EFP, becoming the 38th member of the network, in order to represent and promote the Romanian film industry at the European level. The ADRF was set up in early 2017, and is an NGO that supports production and distribution of independent movies, and aims to develop a new community of filmmakers and film consumers in Romania. ADRF publishes the bilingual online magazine Films in Frame, and offers grants in exceptional situations, aimed at independent filmmakers without resources.
Laura Musat, the founder of The Association for the Development of Romanian Film, told us:
"We set up this association in late 2016, shortly after I graduated from the School of Film, Media & Performance in London. I made the decision to set up the ADRF, mainly out of a personal need to cover some gaps in the Romanian film industry, or at least help fill in those gaps. We have many projects, but the most laudable is the Films in Frame magazine, which you can find online. It is a daily magazine, and I can say that I am proud of my team of some of the best film journalists and critics: Ionut Mares, Victor Morozov, Georgiana Musat, Flavia Dima, the list can go on. I am grateful to them for trusting in the project, which we started from scratch, because the magazine is just beginning, it was launched in October 2019. In Films in Frame, we discuss all the major movies of the moment, we debate European and independent cinema, and we have a variety of material, we try to cover everything that happens. The magazine is also a means of promoting Romanian film, as well as independent film worldwide, trying to reach as wide an audience as possible, which we hope we can persuade to go to a cinema and see a movie that is not an American blockbuster."
The Script Contest is the first ADRF project, and was launched in late 2016 as a short film script competition. With each edition, the competition grew, turning into a workshop and residency for writers of short film scripts. This year, enlisting was between March 1 and April 24. Here is Laura Musat:
"The purpose of the residencies is to find writers and to teach them how to write and develop their talent. Here, in Romania, it is well known that the most famous directors write their own scripts. That is to be admired, and some of them are really good. But when writing one's own script is mostly a matter of pride, I think it is preferable to call on a scriptwriter. However, there are so few of them. Because most directors write their own scripts, I think writers are discouraged, they don't know how to break through in this small film industry. Our purpose with The Script Contest is to find the best writers. During this residency, which lasts for a week, the people who are selected get to meet various filmmakers in the industry, which guide them and provide them with feedback, reaching a satisfactory formula, and at the end we pick a winner. The best script is then made into a short film. The residency means seven days of workshops, masterclasses, debates, and discussions about the scripts, which during this period are rewritten based on all information received there. The residency is in Brasov County, in the village of Cobor, where there is no phone signal, far away from the bustle of the city, where you can focus and work in peace on your project. At the end of the residency, the competitors send their rewritten scripts to the jury, which picks a winner. The Script Contest residency took place last year as well. Together with our colleagues from the Transylvania International Film Festival, we managed to carry the projects through to the end, in conditions of maximum safety. Initially, the residency was supposed to happen in March, but we moved it to August for safety reasons."
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