After a break of two years, a Romanian film finally gets into the main competition: Quod erat demonstrandum by Andrei Gruzsniczki and produced by Velvet Moraru through ICONProduction, which was awarded with Special Jury Prize at Rome IFF. In addition, the Romanian minority coproduction Viktoria was selected for the main competition. The debut feature of the Bulgarian director Maya Vitkova was produced by Vitkova through her company Viktoria Films in coproduction with Anca Puiu and Mandragora. It was the first Bulgarian film ever selected for Sundance.
A Croatian and a Polish film are also in the competion. Vis-à-vis by Nevio Marasović (Croatia), produced by Antitalent Produkcija and Copycat produkcija, won a Feature Film Special Mention at Zagreb IFF 2013, and Floating Skyscrapers / Plynące wieżowce by Tomasz Wasilewski competed at Jameson Cinefest- Miskolc IFF 2013. It was produced by Alter Ego Pictures in coproduction with Superkrak, Studio Q, SoundPlace, Trailer & More SC, and Studio Produkcyjne SPOT and it was supported by the Polish Film Institute.
Mihai Chirilov, the artistic director of TIFF, said that what interested him in choosing the films was "the diversity of extreme point of views, visually or naratively." He added, "It was not a question of shocking with any costs, but of the ambition of telling an original story defying conventions and easy paths."
The main competition of the festival is focused on first and second feature films. Another competition, Shadows/Umbre welcomes horror short films. Twelve films were selected for that competition, coming from Poland, Germany, Portugal, GB, Nederlands, USA, France, Canada, Spain and Australia. The Shadows jury is composed of Marc Carrete, Gaz Bailey, and Costin Chioreanu.
The 13th edition of TIFF will give a Lifetime Achievement Award to Krzysztof Zanussi. TIFF 2014 will also see new projects such as the Transilvania Film Festival Fund (TFFF) which will support short films and documentaries from Transylvania, while Transilvania Pitch Stop (TPS) will allow young Romanian filmmakers to present their features projects to Romanian and international producers.
Competition films:
Dog/Paat by Amir Toodehroosta (Iran)
Everything We Loved by Max Currie (New Zealand)
Still Life by Uberto Pasolini (Great Britain)
Blind by Eskil Vogt (Norway)
Fish and Cat by Shahram Mokri (Iran)
Quod erat demonstrandum by Andrei Gruzsniczki (Romania)
Stockholm by Rodrigo Sorogoyen (Spain)
White Shadow by Noaz Deshe (Italy/Germany/Tanzania)
Viktoria by Maya Vitkova (Bulgaria/Romania)
Vis-à-vis by Nevio Marasović (Croatia)
La voz de los silenciados/The Voice of the Voiceless by Maximón Monihan (USA)
Floating Skyscrapers / Plynące wieżowce by Tomasz Wasilewski (Poland)