First- and second-time directors are yet again set to compete for top honours at the 25th edition of the Transilvania International Film Festival, taking place in Cluj-Napoca from June 12 to 21, 2026. Twelve films from around the world will vie for the coveted Transilvania Trophy and other accolades in the Official Competition, while ten works will compete for the top prize in the What‘s Up, Doc? section, according to Film New Europe.
The organisers also announce Polish film distributor, festival founder, producer, and champion of art cinema Roman Gutek as the first recipient of the Janovics Jenő Award.
The Official Competition
“This year’s lineup is a mix as polarising as the world it comes from. Stark black-and-white minimalism and an overdose of blood and psychedelic colour. True stories and the wildest fabrications. Genre films flirted with, or genre films thrown into a blender. Heroes, anti-heroes. A straight line and a Möbius strip. Black comedy and full-blown farce. Absent fathers, eccentric mothers — or the other way around. Think of it as a game of Jenga where every film is a structural piece. Pull any one out and the whole thing collapses. Together they hold, but the instability is part of the point”, said Mihai Chirilov, Transilvania IFF Artistic Director
Official Competition Films
Feels Like Home (dir. Gábor Holtai, Hungary)
My Father’s Shadow (dir. Akinola Davies jr, UK)
Butterfly (dir. Itonje Søimer Guttormsen, Norway)
Sicko (dir. Aitore Zholdaskali, Kazakhstan)
Le Roi Soleil (No One Will Know) (dir. Vincent Maël Cardona, France)
Lionel (dir. Carlos Saiz, Spain)
The Night is Fading Away (dir. Ezequiel Salinas, Ramiro Sonzini, Argentina)
A Useful Ghost (dir. Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, France)
Truly Naked (dir. Muriel d’Ansembourg, Netherlands)
Our Father (dir. Goran Stankovic, Serbia)
The Red Hangar (dir. Juan Pablo Sallato, Chile)
Titanic Ocean (dir. Konstantina Kotzamani, Greece)
What‘s Up, Doc?
Now in its fifth year as a dedicated competition within Transilvania IFF, the What’s Up, Doc? section brings together ten titles that span the full range of what documentary can be: alongside straight-format films, this year’s selection takes in a coyote animation, a poetic hybrid, a model of investigative journalism, and a tongue-in-cheek B-movie series.
Memory (dir. Vladlena Sandu, France)
“For all their geographic range — from America to Morocco, Mexico to South Africa, the former Soviet Union to present-day Israel — the films in competition (eight of them debuts) keep returning to the same ground: love, the need for closeness, and above all, Truth. The place where positions dissolve and only human experience remains, in all its ambiguity – Crăița Nanu, What’s Up, Doc? Curator
What’s Up, Doc? Films
We Were Left Alone (dir. Adrián Canoura, Spain)
Goodbye Sisters (dir. Alexander Murphy, France)
Memory (dir. Vladlena Sandu, France)
Variations on a Theme (dir. Jason Jacobs, Devon Delmar, South Africa)
Bouchra (dir. Orian Yani Barki, Meriem Bennani, USA)
Motel Paraiso (dir. Jose Eduardo Castilla Ponce, Mexico)
Far From Maine (dir. Roy Cohen, France)
The Seoul Guardians (dir. Kim Jong-Woo, Kim Shin-Wan, Cho Chul-Young, South Korea)
Of Mud And Blood (dir. Jean-Gabriel Leynaud, France)
Hex (dir. Maja Holand, Norway)
Roman Gutek to Receive the Janovics Jenő Award
Polish film distributor, festival founder, producer, and champion of art cinema Roman Gutek will be the first recipient of the Janovics Jenő Award at the Transilvania International Film Festival. His name is attached to the most significant Polish cinematic initiatives of the past three decades.
Created in memory of a pioneer of Transylvanian and European cinema, the Janovics Jenő Award recognises an individual who has shaped the film world through vision, a pioneering spirit, and the ability to open new roads in the industry. Gutek will attend the festival in Cluj-Napoca and take the stage at the Transilvania IFF.25 Closing Gala.
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