“This will materialize in two projects: a creative industries centre, financed through European funds as a Transylvanian Hollywood, and also a local development film fund,” Boc said.

A local film fund has been long sought for in Romania where the filmmakers rely solely on the National Centre for Cinema, which leads to projects being stalled when the CNC’s funds are limited.

Tudor Giurgiu, the director of TIFF, also announced at the festival that he hopes to convince people to donate for a former film depot and to transform it into the first film museum in Romania in 10 years.

The Film Depot/Depozitul de Filme was deserted for the last eight years, but its thousands of prints are the propriety of RADEF RomaniaFilm, the former state centralised network of cinemas. During the festival the depot is used as a screening location and is included in the project Save the Big Screen/Salvaţi marele ecran, launched by TIFF and Romanian Film Promotion one month ago.

“We are initiating a big debate about the Romanian cinemas since 78% of the Romanian towns have no cinema,” Giurgiu said. The festival hopes to raise 7,000 EUR from donations in order to clean and set up the depot.