Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema 2018

The JBFC is proud to join the Romanian Film Initiative in copresenting the 13th edition of Making Waves, the longstanding Romanian Film Festival in New York. Cofounded in 2012 by Corina Suteu, Mihai Chirilov, and Oana Radu, the independent Romanian Film Initiative aims to preserve and enhance the festival’s critical and creative spirit. This survey has “helped define and establish the southeastern European country as a stronghold of socially incisive, independently minded personal cinema” (Wall Street Journal).

Featuring top festival winners Touch Me Not (Golden Bear in Berlin) and “I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians” (Crystal Globe in Karlovy Vary), this year Making Waves showcases the ever-growing diversity of the New Romanian Cinema: from Constantin Popescu’s slow-burning thriller, Pororoca, and its maddening quest for a missing child to Andrei Cretulescu’s strange mix of black comedy and retro melodrama, Charleston; from Daniel Sandu’s box-office hit and autobiographical coming of age story, One Step Behind the Seraphim (winner of most Gopo Awards, the Romanian Oscars), to Paul Negoescu’s light-hearted rom-com, The Story of a Summer Lover; and last but not least, veteran Alexandru Solomon’s fascinating and multi-layered documentary, Tarzan’s Testicles, set in a primate-breeding institute.

Making Waves is presented by the Romanian Film Initiative in partnership with the Jacob Burns Film Center and BAMcinématek. Lead support is provided by The Trust for Mutual Understanding, the Romanian National Film Center, the Filmmakers Union of Romania, and Blue Heron Foundation, along with numerous individual donors.

Program notes by Making Waves Artistic Director Mihai Chirilov, who will introduce every screening and host Q&A sessions with filmmakers and producers.

Mihai Chirilov is a film critic and has been artistic director of the Romanian Film Festival in New York City since 2006. He is also artistic director of the Transilvania International Film Festival, which he cofounded in 2002 and guided to European prominence.