BUZZ CEE International Film Festival, taking place in Buzău, between July 4th and 9th 2017, includes an international competition, aiming to promote the best productions from film makers in Central and South-Eastern Europe. The competitive sections are: feature film, documentary, short and student film.

Out of the 1600+ films entered in the BUZZ CEE official selection, film critics Florin Barbu, Cristi Mărculescu and Bogdan Beșliu, the festival’s selectors, have chosen a number of 29 movies from 16 countries, to compete for the festival awards. The winners of the BUZZ CEE competitions will be selected with the help of 3 international jury members, made up of professionals from the European film industry.

The 29 films that have been selected come from countries like Serbia, Turkey, Cyprus, Germany, Albania, Austria, Belarus, Croatia, Hungary, The Czech Republic, Slovenia, Ukraine, Russia, Greece and Romania. The winners of the competition will receive the BUZZ CEE awards - Long BUZZ (for the Feature Film CEE category), Real BUZZ (for Documentary feature CEE), Short BUZZ (Short Film CEE) and Student BUZZ (for Student Film CEE). The trophies are manually painted by the actor and artist Cristi Martin. Also, the winners will receive valuable awards, consisting of post-production services, offered by Cinelab Romania.

Some of the films the festival proposes for this year are: The Last Day (România, 2016), a feature film directed by Gabriel Achim, telling the story of Adrian, a man from a provincial town, set on becoming a monk. The mayor, the police man and the leader of the Young Christians Association in town are leading their friend on the road to the monastery. The mayor, an amateur director, offers to film the journey. In reality, however, he has secret plans for Adrian.

The Letterbox (Turkey, 2016), directed by Barış Kırımşelioğlu, features as a lead the already known actor Ismail Demirci, famous for the role of sultan Murad in the popular Turkish TV show Kösem. The actor will be present in Buzău and will participate in a screening and a Q&A session with the public.

From Director Dimitri Athanitis, Invisible (Greece, 2016), is a feature film that tells the story of Aris, a 35 year old factory worker. He is laid off without any notice and becomes obsessed with the idea of seeking justice for himself. Ready to put his plan into motion, he is faced with his ex wife leaving their 6 year old son in his care.

Documentary features are also represented by quality productions at BUZZ CEE. A Mere Breath (Romania, 2016) explores the deeply contradictory nature of love in a family. An initiation journey, as well as a theological parable, the film follows 7 years in the life of the Sicrea family in Romania, showing the trials and troubles of Dobrin, who is waiting for a miracle to happen for his daughter to get out of her wheelchair. As we see his kids become adults, we observe how his strong connection to God profoundly influences the family relationships.

Secondo me (Austria, 2006), directed by Pavel Cuzuioc, follows the day-to-day lives of 3 wardrobe supervisors who work at 3 opera houses in Europe: the Vienna Opera, the Scala Opera in Milan and the Odessa Opera. The documentary leaves the Opera and all the events that unfold on the famous stages on a secondary place and focuses on the crew, apparently insignificant, but whose life stories are full of essence.

Out of the short films present at BUZZ CE this year, we mention The Last Chance (Belarus, 2017), directed by Igor Vasilyev. Irisha, a 13 year old girl passionate about riding horses, is getting ready for a horse show and doesn't know if she's capable of handling the emotions and managing her horse. Her experienced trainer, Pavel Pavlovich, tries to help her believe in herself and her strengths and blames the horse for all the failures, promising that he will retire him. Worried for the fate of her faithful friend, Irisha asks her coach to give them one last chance.

Other films featured in the short section are: Sad Face (Ukraine, 2015), directed by Roman Kirichenko, Yokes (Belarus, 2015), directed by Igor Osmolovski, Bafra: Masters of The Nature (Turkey, 2016), directed by Evrim İnci, VERY LONG PLAY VINYL (Russia, 2015), directed by Vladimir Morozov, and others.

A student film from the State University of Cinematography in Russia, How I Am Making A Movie About My Granny (Russia, 2015) tells the life story of Maria Vladimirovna Sinitskaya, a 90 year old grandmother and is directed by the young Anna Sinitskaya. Anna decided to keep her grandma's memories and made an experimental film.

Also in the Student Film category, a short documentary about the people behind the Odeon Theater in Bucharest, directed by Vera Surățel, is a must-see: Technically, you see what you have to see (Romania, 2016).

Aurelian Nica, the Artistic Director for BUZZ CE and one of the organizers, stated: “This year, we offer a balanced competition, with films covering all audience categories, and we are very glad to have had so many films from so many countries enter the competition. This shows us that BUZZ CEE successfully fulfils its purpose of promoting and supporting the movie industry in the region. We eagerly await the audience in the cinema halls. We hope they fully enjoy the films, alongside us, and appreciate the creativity and quality of the selected productions.”

The complete list of the films in the BUZZ CE 2017 competition is available on the festival's website: http://www.buzzcee.ro/

Admittance to all the films in the festival is free.

BUZZ CE is a festival supported by the Romanian National Film Center.
Sponsors: Cinelab, Winmarkt, Vincon România, AQUA Carpatica
Festival car: Ford Proleasing Motors
Partners: George Ciprian Buzău Theater, Balassi Institute, Goethe-Institut Bukarest
Media partners: Zile și Nopți, Cinemap, Radio România Cultural, Ziarul Metropolis, Campus TV, Radio Campus, Viața Buzăului, Cinefan.ro, aarc.ro, TV Buzău, Buzz FM Buzău