Jun 19, 2026 5:33am PT
Courtesy Aris Rammos/Ligia Ciornei/Adi Marineci
Fresh off Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu’s triumph at the Cannes Film Festival, where his latest, “Fjord,” starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve, earned the director his second Palme d’Or, spirits are high at this week’s Transilvania Intl. Film Festival, which takes place June 12 – 21.
Following the trailblazing success of Mungiu, Cristi Puiu (“The Death of Mr. Lazarescu”), Radu Jude (“Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World”) and other pioneers of the Romanian New Wave, a generation of emerging talents is looking to establish itself, both building on the success of their predecessors while taking Romanian filmmaking in radically new directions.
Speaking to Variety in Transilvania, TIFF artistic director Mihai Chirilov says he’s noticed a “shift” in style, tone and aesthetics among Romanian filmmakers, as local cinema “reaches the limits” of the movement that placed it on the map.
