The city already hosts the biggest film festival in Romania and one of the most important in Europe, Transilvania International Film Festival, whose 14th edition will take place from May 29 to June 7th, 2015. The idea of the fund was initiated by film director Tudor Giurgiu, the President of Transilvania IFF, and was debated since 2010, in a dedicated panel. “I am convinced that in 10 years the city can become a second important centre of film and media production - the festival is only a platform for that. We will start making films in the region and break the monopoly of Bucharest,” said Tudor Giurgiu back then.
TFF will be officially launched in April 2015, along with details of funding lines and complete rules. The initiative is greatly supported by the fact that a Regional Centre for Creative Industries, which will include a medium-sized film studio, is to be built in Cluj by the local authorities. Producers who choose to shoot in Cluj County using local facilities and crew will be given financial incentives through funding sessions for film projects. TFF will also support local filmmakers.
Subsequently, the initiators of Transilvania Film Fund will begin discussions with other cities in the region to extend this program.
Extremely attractive as geographical location and with areas that can pass as any other historic city in Europe, Cluj is a great alternative to cities that already offer such incentives. Cluj is the second most populated city in Romania, after the capital, and it is located in the north-western part of the country, at roughly the same distance from Bucharest, Budapest and Belgrade. It is surrounded by forests and grasslands, in a region with wonderful landscapes – the big Hollywood production Cold Mountain was filmed in the region in 2002.
The project is implemented by Cristian Hordilă,Festival Manager of Transilvania IFF and Member in the Board of Directors of European Film Promotion. The partners of TFF are Cluj-Napoca City Hall, the Faculty of Theatre and Television of the “Babes-Bolyai” University, the Faculty of Sciences and Arts of the Sapientia University, and Mircea Suciu, managing partner at DSG, a visual FX studio. Established as a public-private partnership, the fund is included in the future development strategy of the city. Tens of graduates of these institutions will thus have the opportunity to work in the field and will be able to develop a career in the film industry locally.
“We will support feature films, short films, documentaries and all initiatives related to professional development in the field. Cluj-Napoca was known for its great appetite for movies, but now we have the chance to become a production centre, which translates into jobs, the development of the film industry and the artistic life,” says Cristian Hordila, manager of the fund.
In 2014, Transilvania Film Fund was one of the eight projects selected for the second edition of SOFA - School of Film Agents, a unique program through which filmmakers coming from certain regions (Eastern Europe, Germany, Greece, Central Asia and the Caucasus republics) receive support and advice from professionals on their projects. TFF manager, Cristian Hordila, defined the concept of Transilvania Film Fund alongside some of the renowned experts in the field, including Katriel Schory, executive director of the Israel Film Fund, Roberto Olla, Executive Director of Eurimages, Ewa Puszczynska (Opus Film), producer of Ida, Poland’s entry for Oscars, and Nikolaj Nikitin, the director of SOFA and programmer for Berlinale.
“We are very happy that after the successful implementations of our first year participants’ projects, Cristian Hordilă, from our 2nd year, is about to kick off his very needed and demanded SOFA project. Being involved in European cinema for many years, all of us know of the importance of regional film funds and we are very happy that “film wonderland” Romania is now getting its deserved first regional fund. Besides helping to make surely international ambitious film projects, the region will profit so much from all the projects to be shot there in many ways and layers”, says Nikolaj Nikitin, director of SOFA.
TFF intends to join as a full member of Cine-Regio, the organization that brings together 43 European regional film funds.
