The fourth edition of the TAIFAS Balkan film and culture festival is set to bring films awarded at Cannes, Berlinale, and Sundance, a retrospective dedicated to director Nae Caranfil, and the show \u201cMaria T\u0103nase. A Story\u201d to Timisoara, western Romania.<\/p>\n
The festival will take place between October 12 and 18. During the seven days of the festival, the program brings together feature films, eight of them in national premiere, two short film programs curated by young people, meetings with directors and actors, film and literature residencies at Cinema Studio 14, as well as shows and events in several venues across the city.<\/p>\n
The opening of TAIFAS takes place on Monday, October 12, at 19:30, at Cinema Timi\u0219, with “Maria T\u0103nase. A Story,” a production of the Constan\u021ba State Theater directed by Carmen Lidia Vidu. Mirela Pan\u0103 plays Maria T\u0103nase, accompanied on piano by George C\u0103lin, in a show that brings biography, memory and music into dialogue.<\/p>\n
After the show, director Carmen Lidia Vidu and actress Mirela Pan\u0103 will sit down for a chat with Ruxandra P\u0103duraru, a cultural anthropologist who also serves as the festival\u2019s host.<\/p>\n
The film program opens on Tuesday, October 13, with “The Birthday Party,” directed by Miguel \u00c1ngel Jim\u00e9nez, an imaginary biography of tycoon Aristotle Onassis presented in premiere at the Locarno Film Festival, starring Hollywood star Willem Dafoe.<\/p>\n
Among the films in this edition are “Dreamed Adventure,” by Valeska Grisebach, winner this year of the Jury Prize at Cannes, “Nina Roza,” by Genevi\u00e8ve Dulude-de Celles, awarded the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at Berlinale 2026, as well as two titles awarded at this year\u2019s Sundance festival, namely “Shame and Money” by Visar Morina and “Hold Onto Me” by Myrsini Aristidou, this year\u2019s Cyprus entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.<\/p>\n
The selection made by artistic director C\u0103t\u0103lin Olaru also includes two films from the 2026 edition of the Karlovy Vary festival, namely “Small-Time Crooks,” by Mate Ugrin, awarded the FIPRESCI Prize, and “Almost a Whole Person,” by Efthimis Kosemund-Sanidis, awarded for direction in the Proxima section.<\/p>\n
The TAIFAS 2026 selection is completed by one of the star titles from the Sarajevo Film Festival, namely “17,” by Kosara Miti\u0107, which centers on the friendship of two teenage girls confronted with sexual violence and was awarded the Audience Award and the Best Actress award.<\/p>\n
The screenings will be accompanied by conversations with festival guests. The public will meet directors Nikola Le\u017eai\u0107, Mate Ugrin and Efthimis Kosemund-Sanidis, as well as actresses Yana Radeva and Flomaria Papadaki.<\/p>\n
Similarly, the screening of “Shame and Money,” scheduled for the closing of the festival, will also be followed by a Zoom discussion with director Visar Morina.<\/p>\n
Among the main events of this edition is the retrospective dedicated to director Nae Caranfil. “E pericoloso sporgersi” (1993), “Filantropica” (2002) and “The Rest Is Silence” (2007) offer three perspectives closely linked to this year\u2019s festival theme: the desire to escape from the final years of communism, the mechanisms of imposture during the transition and the beginnings of Romanian cinema. All screenings will be followed by Q&A sessions with filmmaker Nae Caranfil, who will also hold a masterclass on October 18, from 15:30, in the Small Hall of Cinema Studio.<\/p>\n
The festival includes the Film Residency program for young filmmakers, the Literary Residency program, including book launches, colloquia, reading clubs, and Through the Balkans with Pork, a gastronomic journey through Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and beyond.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The fourth edition of the TAIFAS Balkan film and culture festival is set to bring films awarded at Cannes, Berlinale, and Sundance, a retrospective dedicated to director Nae Caranfil, and the show \u201cMaria T\u0103nase. A Story\u201d to Timisoara, western Romania. The festival will take place between October 12 and 18. During the seven days of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12377\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}