Romanian National Film Center Gives Coin to Paunescu’s Diaz and Gruzsnizcki’s The Escape

15 feature films, 12 first-feature films, 31 short films and 16 documentaries were competing for the second 2010 contest of Romanian National Film Center of Cinematography. Only a few of them received some money though.

The biggest grant (over 480.000$) was given to (see above) Andrei Gruzsnizcki’s Evadarea (The Escape), the director’s second feature, after Cealaltă Irina (The Other Irina). Its story happens during winter so the shooting will start most probably at the end of this year and will continue in the first few months of 2012. The Escape is produced by Icon Production, the company that has made the most acclaimed Romanian documentary in years – The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu.

Corneliu Gherghiță’s Domnul de la Curte received the second biggest grant (over 432.000$), while Călin Netzer’s Poziția copilului (The Child’s Position) with the screenplay written by Răzvan Rădulescu grabbed almost 350.000$.

Other feature films that received money from the Romanian National Center of Cinematography are: Bobby Păunescu’s Diaz (the project produced by Mandragora Movies got the most points from the jury and received the entire credit requested – over 13.700$), another Mandragora Movies production – Itaker, directed by Toni Trupia, a Strada Film production directed by Chema Rodriguez and written by Chema Rodriguez and Catalin Mitulescu (who also co-written If I Want to Whistle I Whistle) –Noaptea vine in India (Night Comes to India) and Napolean Helmis’ By Pass, produced by Abis Studio.

Kind of surprising fact was that Adrian Sitaru’s În al 10-lea cer didn’t received anything at this contest.

Of those 12 first-feature films included in the contest only three received a part of the credit requested: Răzvan Săvescu’s America, venim! (America, We’re Coming!), Iulia Rugină’s Breaking News and Paul Negoescu’s 365 de revelioane (365 New Years Eves).

As for the short films category, Mihai Ionescu’s Dopul scuză mijloacele received the entire credit requested, over 147.000$. Telefon în Italia, directed by Cătălin Apostol, and Solitudes, directed by Liova Jedlicki obtained 43.500$ and almost 35.000$ respectively.

In the documentary section, Anca Damian’s Crulic – Drumul spre dincolo received the biggest grant (over 108.000$), followed by Oana Giurgiu’s Din Romania spre Sion (From Romania to Sion), Gabor Xantus’ Exploratorul (The Explorer) and Nebojsa Slijepcevici’s Pețitorul (The Matchmaker).

Photo Credit: Gandul