From 17 to 21 June 2026, FFC programmer Joshua Jádi attended the Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF) in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. As the country's largest film festival, TIFF is one of the most important meeting points for Central and Eastern European cinema and offers valuable insights into current developments across the region’s film industry.
During Romanian Days Industry, Joshua followed presentations of upcoming film projects from Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Turkey and Ukraine. He also had the opportunity to watch seven Romanian works-in-progress currently nearing completion. In addition, he explored a broad selection of contemporary Romanian cinema, viewing 19 feature films and 26 short films during the festival.
One of the highlights of the visit was the presentation of the CONNECTING COTTBUS COCOLAB: EAST-WEST EMERGING PRODUCERS AWARD. On behalf of FilmFestival Cottbus’ co-production market connecting cottbus, Katharina Stumm presented the award to Romanian producer Mara Crăcăleanu for her project SUN OFFSPRING. The award is part of the long-standing partnership between TIFF and connecting cottbus and supports promising emerging producers from Central and Eastern Europe.
Katharina Stumm also served on the Short Film Competition jury alongside Guillaume Calop from Les Arcs Film Festival. Their participation reflects the strong ties between the European partner networks of FilmFestival Cottbus, connecting cottbus and MIOB – Moving Images Open Borders.
We would like to thank the TIFF team for the inspiring exchange and look forward to returning to Cluj – and, of course, to welcoming many exciting new films to the next edition of FilmFestival Cottbus.