The 14th edition of ANONIMUL ran 7th  to 13th August 2017, in Sfântu Gheorghe, the Danube Delta. The Festival opened with the premiere screening in Romania of Michel Franco’s APRIL’S DAUGHTER. During the Opening Gala, Mexican director Michel Franco was awarded the ANONIMUL Trophy for his contribution to the beauty of cinema.

Selector Ludmila Cvikova put forth 6 titles for the 2017 Feature Film Competition:

QUALITY TIME, directed by Daan Bakker, The Netherlands, 2017- Shanghai International Film Festival, 2017; THE BURGLAR, directed by Hagar Ben-Asher, Israel, 2017- Hivos Tiger Competition, International Film Festival Rotterdam, 2017; MARIȚA, directed by Cristi Iftime, Romania, 2017- FEDEORA Award for the Best film from the East of the West Competition, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, 2017; THE NOBODIES, directed by Juan Sebastián Mesa, Colombia, 2016- Audience Award for Best Feature- Venice International Film Critics’ Week, 2016; BURNING BIRDS, directed by Sanjeewa Pushpakumara, France- Sri Lanka, 2016- New Currents Competition, Busan International Film Festival, 2016; SEXY DURGA, directed by Sanal Kumar Sasidharan, India, 2017- Hivos Tiger Award, International Film Festival Rotterdam, 2017.

The Short Film Competition included 14 Romanian titles and respectively 14 international titles put forth by film critic Ionuț Mareș, the selector for the Short Film Competition starting this year. The following short films were awarded: STATE OF EMERGENCY MOTHERFUCKER, directed by Sebastien Petretti (Belgium)- the Audience Award for Best International Short, respectively WRITTEN/UNWRITTEN, directed by Adrian Silișteanu- the Audience Award for Best Romanian Short. The Ovidiu Bose Paștină Award, offered by the Anonimul Foundation, went to IL SILENZIO/ THE SILENCE directed by Farnoosh Samadi and Ali Asgari (Italy).

The ANONIMUL Trophy 2017 was awarded to feature film MARIȚA, directed by Cristi Iftime.

The 13th edition of ANONIMUL ran 8th to 14th August 2016, in Sfantu Gheorghe, the Danube Delta. The Festival opened with the premiere screening in Romania of THE HANDMAIDEN, directed by Park Chan-wook.

For the Feature Film Competition, selector Ludmila Cvikova put forth 6 titles: HEDI, directed by Mohamed Ben Attia, Tunisia- Belgium- France, 2016- Silver Bear for Best Actor- Majd Mastoura, Berlinale; RADIO DREAMS, directed by Babak Jalali, USA, 2016- Hivos Tiger Award, Rotterdam International Film Festival, 2016; 5 OCTOBER, directed by Martin Kollár, Slovakia, 2016- Bright Future, Rotterdam International Film Festival, 2016; THE LAND OF THE ENLIGHTENED, directed by Pieter-Jan De Pue, Belgium- Ireland, 2016- Special Jury Prize for Best Camera Sundance Film Festival, 2016; DEMON, directed by Marcin Wrona, Polonia- Israel, 2015- Toronto Film Festival 2015; MIRACLE OF TEKIR, directed by Ruxandra Zenide, Switzerland- Romania, 2015, Emerging Swiss Talent, Zürich Film Festival, 2015.

For the Short Film Competition, selector Irina-Margareta Nistor had more than 350 shorts to choose from, awarded as follows:

Best International Short Film to EDEN HOSTEL, directed by Gonzaga Mano (Spain); Best Romanian Short Film to A NIGHT IN TOKORIKI, directed by Roxana Stroe, and the Ovidiu Bose Paștină Award, offered by the Anonimul Foundation to TEN METER TOWER, directed by Axel Danielson şi Maximilien van Aertryck (Sweden).
The ANONIMUL 2016 Trophy was awarded to the film THE LAND OF THE ENLIGHTENED, directed by Pieter-Jan De Pue (Belgium).

The 12th edition of ANONIMUL sran 17th to 23rd August 2015, in Sfantu Gheorghe, the Danube Delta. The Festival opened with the premiere screening in Romania of THE LOBSTER, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos.

For the Feature Film Competition, selector Ludmila Cvikova put forth 6 titles: the Romanian THE WORLD IS MINE, directed by Nicolae Constantin Tănase – winner of the ANONIMUL 12 Festival Trophy, Children, directed by Jaro Vojtek (Slovakia- Czech Republic), The Sky Above Us, directed by Marinus Groothof (Netherlands- Belgium- Serbia- Greece), The Gulls, directed by Ella Manzheeva (Russia), Max & Lenny, directed by Fred Nicolas (France), Body, directed by Małgorzata Szumowska (Poland).

For the Short Film Competition, selector Irina-Margareta Nistor chose 41 films out of the over 400 submitted, awarded as follows:

Best International Short Film to LISTEN, by Hamy Ramezan and Rungano Nyoni (Denmark- Finland); Best Romanian Short Film to 0068 SNIPER’S NEST, directed by Radu Bărbulescu, and the Ovidiu Bose Paștină Award, offered by the Anonimul Foundation to THERE IS NOTHING IN THIS WORLD, by Andreea Vălean.

The 11th edition of the ANONIMUL International Independent Film Festival took place, exceptionally, in Bucharest. The event ran August 12th to 17th 2014, at Cinema Studio and Verde Stop Arena, where it created a green oasis, with good films and concerts, thus bringing a little bit of the Danube Delta and Festival air into the heart of the city.

The Feature Film Competition included 5 international titles: Casa Grande, directed by Fellipe Barbosa (Brazil), The Monk, by The Maw Naing (Burma-Czech Republic) – awarded the ANONIMUL Special Prize, September, directed by Penny Panayatopoulou (Greece-Germany), The Tribe, by Myroslav Slaboshpitskiy (Ukraine) and REMOTE CONTROL, directed by Byamba Sakhya, (Mongolia-Germany) – awarded the ANONIMUL 2014 Trophy.

The Feature Film Competition included 5 international titles: Casa Grande, directed by Fellipe Barbosa (Brazil), The Monk, by The Maw Naing (Burma-Czech Republic) – awarded the ANONIMUL Special Prize, September, directed by Penny Panayatopoulou (Greece-Germany), The Tribe, by Myroslav Slaboshpitskiy (Ukraine) and REMOTE CONTROL, directed by Byamba Sakhya, (Mongolia-Germany) – awarded the ANONIMUL 2014 Trophy.

In 2013, we celebrated our 10th anniversary with an extended 10 day edition of the Festival, running 9th to 18th August in Sfantu Gheorghe, the Danube Delta.

Highlights of the anniversary edition included awarding director Istvan Szabo with the 10th Anniversary ANONIMUL Trophy within the Opening Gala of the Festival, and initiating a project dedicated to the venue of the Festival itself: Omnibus ANONIMUL 10, with short films made by Romanian actors turned directors- as for the main OFF programs at ANONIMUL: Actors turned Directors and Romanian OFF Section.

The first three shorts – Kazimir, by Dorian Boguţă, A Duet, by Andi Vasluianu andSquare One, by Emanuel Pârvu – were screened at the 10th edition of the Festival.

The Grandmaster by Wong Kar-wai opened the anniversary edition of ANONIMUL International Independent Film Festival, Friday, August 9th. The Closing Gala of the 10th ANONIMUL IIFF anniversary edition, with the winning titles awarded by the audience, by vote, took place Saturday, August 17th.
Within the Short Film Section, the audience awarded the following: Best Short Animation, to TARAZOO/ SCALE, directed by Ramin Rahbar. Best Short Fiction Film went to TUNS, RAS ŞI FREZAT/ HALF SHAVED, directed by Bogdan Mureşanu, presented to the director.
The Ovidiu Bose Paştină Award, offered by the Anonimul Foundation, to VACA FINLANDEZĂ/ THE FINNISH COW, directed by Gheorghe Preda, awarded in the presence of the director.

Moreover, a Special Prize was granted to director Daniel Sandu, for short film VOCEA A DOUA/ SECOND VOICE.

As for the Feature Film Competition, the ANONIMUL 2013 Trophy went to THE MAJOR, directed by Yuri Bykov, accepted by the director himself.

The 2012 edition of ANONIMUL International Film Festival opened with the premiere screening in Romania of director István Szabó’s most recent film, The Door.

The audience in Sfantu Gheorghe awarded the following:
Toata lumea din familia noastra/ Everybody in Our Family, directed by Radu Jude garnered the highest number of votes, being thus deemed the winner of the ANONIMUL Trophy 2012.

Within the Short Film Competition, Pui, cartofi prajiti si o cola/ Chicken, Fries and a Coke, directed by Emanuel Parvu was awarded Best Fiction Short, while Tipatul/ The Scream, directed by Sebastian Cosor was awarded Best Animation Short.
The Ovidiu Bose Pastina Award went to Fulgenzio, directed by Aldo Iuliano (Italy), while the bloggers attending the 9th edition of ANONIMUL conferred a Special award to Florina Dumitrache for her film Reuniune de Familie/ Family Reunion.

Titles Despre Oameni si Melci/ Of Snails and Men, directed by Tudor Giurgiu, Si caii sunt verzi pe pereti/ Chasing Rainbows, directed by Dan Chisu, 3 zile pana la Craciun (Ultimele zile din viata Elenei si a lui Nicolae Ceausescu/ Three Days till Christmas (The Last Three Days of the Life of Elena and Nicolae Ceausescu), directed by Radu Gabrea, Crulic- Drumul spre dincolo/ Crulic- The Path to beyond, directed by Anca Damian, Pacatoasa Teodora/ Teodora Sinner, directed by Anca Hirte were showcased within the Romanian OFF Section at ANONIMUL. The Festival further presented two excerpts from titles Youtube Bazaar by Dan Chisu and respectively Chuck Norris vs Communism by Ilinca Calugareanu, as well as various Romanian short and medium-lenght films. Collateral events included Q&A sessions, debates, and concerts.

The 2012 Eco Docs Section showcased The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom, directed by Lucy Walker, as well as titles The Landfill, directed by Jessica Edwards and Gary Hustwit and respectively Meet Me. Toilet, directed by Jessica Yu; as part of the broader Focus Forward: Short Films, Big Ideas series, initiated by GE and Cinelan.

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 8thedition 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.

 

The 2010 edition of the ANONIMUL International Film Festival opened with the Romanian premiere of Abbas Kiarostami’s “Copie conforme/ Certified Copy”. Included in the Cannes Festival Official Selection in 2010, the film garnered the Best Actress Award – Juliette Binoche.

The audience in Sfantu Gheorghe voted for the winners of both feature and short competitions: “Zero”, directed by Pawel Borowski (Poland) gathered most votes for the Feature Film Competition, thus winning the ANONIMUL 2010 Trophy. As for the Short film Competition, “I’ll Be Zorro Someday”, directed by Joel Olivier (France) won Best Fiction Short, while “Amazonia”, directed by Sam Chen (USA) received the Best Animation Short Award.

The Festival continued the Actors behind Camera program by screening shorts and features by Anthony Hopkins, Adrian Grenier and Natalie Portman.

The ECO DOCS section presented titles such as “Climate Of Change”, directed by Brian Hill (UK) and “The Hybrid Union”, directed by Serguei Kouchnerov (USA).

Following project “Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests”, Lucian Ban returned to Anonimul in 2010 with “Tarkovsky Redux – like spirit without a shadow”. The project featured American violist Mat Maneri, nominated at the Grammy Awards in 2006 for Best Alternative Album, with Lucian Ban, Silent Strike and Dan Basu.

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.

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