TIFF.18 - 2019

Monos, directed by Alejandro Landes, was the great winner of TIFF’s 18th edition: the Columbian tribal fable impressed the jury with its masterfully told story of survival, power, and anarchy, nabbing the 15,000 EUR Transilvania Trophy.

The TIFF Official Competition Jury, comprised of directors Denis Côté and Constantin Popescu, producers Mike Goodridge and Anita Juka, as well as Grainne Humphreys, the director of the Dublin International Film Festival, also awarded the 5,000 EUR Best Director prize to May el-Toukhy, “for her confident, mature, and sophisticated direction of Queen of Hearts.”

Cele mai bune filme ale ediției și cei mai importanți cineaști ai momentului au fost premiați sâmbătă seară, pe 8 iunie, pe scena Teatrului Național din Cluj-Napoca. Filmul Monos, în regia lui Alejandro Landes, a fost desemnat marele câștigător al celei de-a 18-a ediții TIFF. Fabula tribală columbiană a impresionat juriul cu o poveste despre supraviețuire, putere și anarhie, și a primit Trofeul Transilvania în valoare de 15.000 de Euro.

Relaxed, happy, and impressed by the large number of fans who came to the gala evening, on Saturday, June 1, Nicolas Cage came up on the Students’ Culture House stage to receive the Transilvania Trophy for Contribution to World Cinema.

“I’m very happy to be back here in your beautiful country. You know, I made two movies here…and both experiences were wonderful, I’m proud of those films. And that’s why I wanted to come back here and thank you personally for those experiences.” The actor declared himself fascinated by the spirit of the place and by Transylvania, as stories of about Vlad Țepeș affected his imagination. He also announced his intention to make another movie in Romania. “I will put this trophy on the nightstand next to my bed and when I’m feeling lonely at three in the morning, I will think of my friends here in Transylvania,” he added before the screening of one of his favorite films, John Woo’s Face/Off.

One of the most original and imaginative voices of French cinema, Michel Gondry, comes to TIFF as a special guest with a complete 12-feature retrospective, as well as with his initiative L’Usine de films amateurs (the Amateur Film Factory), to be inaugurated in a special event on May 31st. Agnès Varda, the recently departed mother of the Nouvelle Vague, will be celebrated in TIFF’s 3 x 3 section.