Five young Romanian and French students in Cluj, majoring in theatre and film, medicine or international cooperation, will watch this year 7 French language films from Canada, France and Switzerland, to award the TV5 Monde, the French Institute and RFI Romania Prize. The prize consists of the purchase of the right to screen the film in Romanian cinemas.
The mentor of the TV5MONDE Young Francophone Jury is Corina Șuteu, theatre critic, cultural manager and former Minister of Culture.
The selection of the five members of the Jury was coordinated by Dora Zegrean, in charge of academic cooperation at the French Institute of Romania in Cluj-Napoca.
The films to be judged are:
Noemie Says Yes (Noemie Dit Oui, d. Geneviève Albert, Canada)
The Outliers (d. Raphaël Mathié, France
Like an Island (d. Tizian Büchi, Switzerland)
Knit's Island (d. Ekiem Barbier, Guilhem Causse, Quentin L'helgoualc'h, France)
Summer Scars (d. Simon Rieth, France)
Belle And Sebastian: The New Generation (d. Pierre Core, France)
Juniors (d. Hugo Thomas, France)
The Young Francophone Jury at Transilvania IFF 2023 is one of the projects that TV5MONDE, the French Institute of Romania and RFI continue to develop together to support young people and the French-speaking world. The prize is awarded at Transilvania IFF for the tenth consecutive year.
The five members of this year's Young Francophone Jury are:
Andreea Radu is 22 years old and she’s in her final year of BA studies at the Faculty of Theatre and Film, Department of Drama, UBB Cluj-Napoca. She has seen Transilvania IFF films every year since she's been at university, including in 2021 when the Rohmer retrospective, one of her favourite French directors, took place. She is delighted that this year director Jean-Luc Godard is celebrated at Transilvania IFF, and looks forward to seeing his films on the big screen and participating in discussions about the productions. Participating in this project allows her to combine two great passions: a love of cinema and a passion for the French language, all interspersed with the magic of meeting new people with similar interests.
Raluca Bălan is a 3rd year drama student at the Faculty of Theatre and Film, UBB Cluj-Napoca. Participating in Transilvania IFF as a member of francophone jury allows her not only to share her passion for cinema with other equally enthusiastic young people, but also to contribute to the recognition and promotion of the French film industry. Since she’s in her final year of drama studies, she is already familiar with the process of analysing and interpreting artistic works. She is used to working in teams and participating in constructive debates, which will facilitate her active involvement in the jury and collaboration with the other members.
Adelina Hess is a first year Master's student at the University of Lille where she studies Intercultural Relations and International Cooperation. Passionate about multiculturalism, she has recently spent a year in Bologna as part of an Erasmus stay. Of Romanian origin, Adelina has always been attracted to our country's culture and, wishing to be directly connected with it, she came to Cluj to do an internship at the French Institute.
Passionate about cinema, Adelina has attended all the editions of the International TV Series festival Séries Mania, which has been held in Lille since 2005. She has also taken film and audio-visual communication courses to develop her film culture. Adelina started doing theatre when she was in secondary school and pursued her passion at the conservatory in Marcq-en-Barœul for 8 years.
Alexandru Necula is a 4th year medical student at Medicine and Pharmacy University (UMF) Cluj-Napoca. Friends describe him as a person who watches far too many films. He has been involved in the world of cinema since high school when his philosophy teacher introduced him to art films and the Transilvania International Film Festival. Since then, he's been hooked on cinema and hasn't missed any TIFF edition. A fan of the style and thinking of Bresson, Antonioni and Bergman, he is also interested in Polish, Iranian and Greek cinema, particularly Kieślowski, Kiarostami and Lanthimos. When he watches a film, he tries not to have expectations so that he can appreciate it in its purest form and understand the artistic intentions of the director. The discussions about cinema he has with friends also play a key role in this process because they bring different perspectives he wouldn't have thought of. In addition, he enjoys noting the specifics of a director's vision of sound effects, the brightness of characters' faces or colour choices.
Léopold Martel is a 2nd year medical student at Medicine and Pharmacy University (UMF) Cluj-Napoca. As a child, he was introduced to classical and contemporary cinema and had the chance to receive an education that allowed him to understand many masterpieces of cinema, whether they were French, by names such as François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard and Roman Polanski, or international such as Stanley Kubrick, Quentin Tarantino, Alfred Hitchcock. For Léopold, cinema is not time wasted on Sunday evenings, but a real passion. When evaluating films, he be a person of discernment, as his aim is to understand each artistic concept in depth, to create a dialogue with each piece.