Short history

The 2011 edition of the ANONIMUL International Film Festival opened with the premiere screening of Terrence Malick’s most recent film, The Tree of Life, awarded the 2011 Golden Palm in Cannes.

The Guest of Honor of this edition was Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan. A constant presence within the Official Competition in Cannes, Nuri Bilge Ceylan here presented his most recent film, Once upon a Time in Anatolia, awarded the Grand Prix in Cannes 2011 as his Three Monkeys and Uzak/ Distant. The director further delivered an ample question and answer session in the Cinema Hall.

The audience in Sfantu Gheorghe voted for the winners of the Feature and Short Film Competitions. The House, directed by Zuzana Liova (Slovakia) obtained the highest number of votes, thus being awarded the 2011 ANONIMUL Trophy.

As for the short films, the awards went to Winter Frog, directed by Slony Sow (France) for Best Fiction Short and respectively to Growing, directed by Roxana Bentu (Romania) for Best Animation Short. The Ovidiu Bose Pastina Award went to the film Kill Your Bill, directed by Irina Vasilyeva, while the bloggers attending the 8^th edition of ANONIMUL conferred a Special Prize to director Andrei Dobrescu.

The Festival continued its “label” Actors behind Camera section by presenting features and shorts by Isabella Rossellini, Casey Affleck and Feo Aladag.

The 2011 Eco Docs Section presented titles Waste Land, directed by Lucy Walker and The Dark Side of the Digital Age, directed by Nizam Yusuff.

A special project presented within our 2011 edition was ND TANGO, a live performance with Marcelo Nisinman (bandoneon & composition), Adrian Fioramonti (electric guitar), Winfried Holzenkamp (electric bass), Andu Dumitrescu (visual transcript). A new form of collaboration between Marcelo Nisinman and Andu Dumitrescu, ND Tango presented, through imagery and music, a fresh, new vision on tango.

2009 edition of ANONIMUL IFF opened with the Romanian premiere of Almodovar’s film “Broken Embraces”, Official Competition Cannes 2009.

The audience gathered in Sfantu Gheorghe voted for the winners of both feature and short competitions: “The Other Irina” by Andrei Gruzsniczki (Romania) got the ANONIMUL Trophy 2009. For the short competition, the awards went to “Oli’s Wedding” by Tudor Jurgiu (Romania) for best fiction short and to “Post!” by Matthias Bruhn si Christian Asmussen, Germany for best animation short.

The Festival continued the program called Actors behind Camera screening shorts and features by Helen Hunt, Kenneth Branagh, Sarah Polley, Jude Law, Bob Hoskins sau Ewan McGregor.

Eco-docs 2009 put together documentaries on different global issues today: hunger – “Garapa” by Jose Padilha, sexual exploitation of children – “Playground” by Libby Spears, equal right to education – “The Tehuacan Project” by Andrew Lauer and the collective film “8” with short docs by Gus Van Sant, Wim Wenders, Gael García Bernal, Gaspar Noe, Jane Campion, Jan Kounen, Mira Nair, Abderrahmane Sissako

A special project in the Festival was the Lucian Ban, Sorin Romanescu, Silent Strike, visual artist Dan Basu’s concert, with inspiration and background from Andy Warhol’s screen tests. Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests was the proposal of the Romanian musician living in New York Lucian Ban and proved itself to be a successful combination of music and video.

In 2008, ANONIMUL Trophy was awarded to the mexican film Silent Light directed by Carlos Reygadas. President of the jury was the polish director Krzysztoff Zanussi and the members were actress Laura Vasiliu, screenwriter Lucian Georgescu, german producer Joachim von Vietinghoff and bulgarian critic Bojidar Manov. Audience award went to The Wave from Germany directed by Dennis Gansel.

In 2007, ANONIMUL TROPHY went to the Romanian film California Dreamin' (Endless) directed by Cristian Nemescu. The feature Jury was presided by Marina Grasic, the executive producer of CRASH - 2006 Oscar for Best Film. 
California Dreamin' was also the winner of the Audience Award.

We were honored by the visit of British director Ken Loach, who, together with Romanian director Cristian Mungiu was the guest of honor of 2007 edition. Both winners of Palme d'Or in 2006 (Loach) and 2007 (Mungiu), they accepted a Q&A session in the Film Village after the screenings.

In 2006, ANONIMUL TROPHY went to Heaven's doors by Swel & Imad Noury (Morocco). The Festival opened for film industry-oriented debates with professionals - directors, producers, film Festival directors, journalists - invited to share their experience with the audience in the FilmVillage. The Festival also brought together most of the Romanian young film directors and their last films - features or shorts - in a special sectiondedicated to recent Romanian cinema The awaited generation...

In 2005, Peter Greenaway honoured the Festival and gave a lecture to the audience in Sfantu Gheorghe. The trilogy Tulse Luper Suitcases was screened in the Opening of the Festival and Greenaway accepted a Q&A session with the audience in the camping after the screening. The Feature Jury, presided by the Romanian actress Maia Morgenstern awarded Turtles Can Fly by Bahman Ghobadi (Iran) the Trophy of the second edition of the Festival. Best Documentary went to Melting Siberia by Ido Haar (Israel) and Best Short to Summer Clouds by Axel Danielson (Sweden). The special screenings included Ten Minutes Older: the Cello and the Trumpet and a selection of documentaries on recent terrorist attacks and conflict zones.

In 2004, the guest of honor and also the President of the Feature Jury was Moritz de Hadeln, former director of Berlin and Venice Film Festivals. Under his direction, the Jury awarded the Trophy to Buongiorno, notte by Marco Bellochio (Italy). Best Documentary Award went to The Story of the Weeping Camel by Davaa Byamasuren and Luigi Falorni (Germany) and Best Short Award to At That Point?Rebeca by Luciana Gortostiza (Mexico). The special screenings included Coffee & Cigarettes, directed by Jim Jarmusch, a selection of censored shorts from Eastern and Central Europe (with a focus on the conflict zone from ex-Yugoslavia) and a selection of documentaries on the Danube and its Delta.