Another year, another Ceau Cinema festival in my home town of Timișoara (Romania). Now at it’s 12th edition, it has grown significantly over the years, moving from improvised screenings of a small selection of movies to major cinema outings featuring over fifty films. If you’re still looking for reasons to put it down in next year’s calendar, then add to your decision-making matrix the way that Timișoara has worked to up its cultural game, particularly since holding the title of European Capital of Culture in 2023. It has become one of the must-visit places in the country, the region and, dare I say – objectively – the world.
On a personal level, this edition was always going to struggle to match the emotions of last year’s event, which included a special project close to my heart entitled “Houses in Film”. That said, if you look carefully at the poster, you’ll still find the tributary logo in the media partners section, which is always an honour.
I only engaged in one screening a day, not something a so-called-cinephile could brag about. But it did allow me to get a sense of most of the spectrum that Ceau Cinema offered this year. It also allowed me to slurp on said watermelon. Yum.
The local setting
This 12th edition saw the festival take full advantage of Timișoara’s ever-growing cinema infrastructure. After Victoria and Timiș, Cinema Studio opened its three screen venue, which includes an experience that everyone seems to be clamouring to get to – projections on the building’s rooftop. Aside from these, the festival was spread to both very familiar places, outdoor screenings at the Summer Cinema and in Traian Square, as well as less familiar places, in the cultural and educational centre located in the Kuncz-Plopi neighbourhood.
This year’s jury was composed of Mara and Ioana Bugarin. The two young actresses born in Timișoara have made a name for themselves with movies like Metronom (2022) for the former and Miracle (2021) or Boss (2023) for the latter. They were basically synonymous with this year’s edition of the festival, featuring on the poster and in the usual promotional trailer(s). The third member of the jury was Cătălin Cristuțiu, one of the best known Romanian editors. If you’ve watched Romanian movies in the last ten years, you’ve definitely come across Cristuțiu’s handiwork.
(some of) The movies
I wrote some words about the movies I saw during the festival, which you can catch up on in last week’s round of reviews. It all started at Cinema Timiș, with close to a full house, so about five hundred people. The opening movie was The Quiet Son (2024), a universal tale of youth-turned-extremist anchored by Vincent Lindon’s performance in the lead. It otherwise proved overlong and uninspired. Next day’s in-competition screening that I caught was substantially better. Heck, it was one of the best films I’ve seen during any Ceau Cinema edition: the Lithuanian Drowning Dry (2024). This is the kind of experience to best have without any prior knowledge as to what it’s all about and if you find the patience for it, it will be exceptionally rewarding. Saturday’s open-air highlight was My Uncle Jens (2025), a Norwegian-Romanian co-production. Director Brwa Vahabpour, producer Anda Ionescu and editor Cătălin Cristuțiu were present and said some interesting words. And on Sunday I was intent on experiencing The Polish Dancer (1917), a silent movie that had live music, which made up for the less than memorable film.
I’ll also set aside two paragraphs about the short films from Banat, an annual showcase for shorts made in or around Banat. Not everything is memorable, because of wildly varying budgets and experience levels, but there’s usually something to like. I wrote about my preferred experiences, to which I’ll just add that it was cool to see the 200 seater Cinema Studio main screen sold out.
Also, here are my three word reviews for each:
- On the Impossibility of an Homage (Xandra Popescu) – narcissists are funnoying
- Export Only (Cristina Iliescu) – no ketchup, please
- Happy (Mara Cohn) – title is deceiving
- The Waters We Dwell In (Răzvan Dima) – needs billionaire money
- When it’s cold I think about her (Lucas Neagu) – death is no (release)
- My School Socrates (Al Mouallem Sami) – needs Plato sequel
- Day In Day Out (Laurențiu Pistol) – space between doors
- Signal (Daniela A. Radu) – body, oh, body
- Spin (Adina Codoban, Cosmin Neață) – red is dead
- Stay Tuned (Adrian Marius Achirei) – just have beer
Extracurriculars
Aside from the screenings, the festival organized other themed events, of which I’ll highlight some:
- a workshop for young editors, run by Cristuțiu;
- an exhibit for alternative posters to this year’s edition, signed by aspiring illustrators;
- an international collab with SCHLiNGEL, an International Film Festival for Children and Young Audiences that has been held annually in Chemnitz.
All in all, I had the sense that the festival vibes were good, with people coming in ever greater numbers to the events. It will always be challenging to draw large crowds while staying close to the festival’s philosophy of European cinema. But the Ceau Cinema team is working on that, with themed screenings throughout the year to build an audience.
It’s always a good time when you see people following the taste of watermelon-infused-celluloid-projections around Timișoara. So, you know, maybe start making plans for the summer of 2026?
tributary stu 