Lavinia Sandru

President EcoFest


 
 

For the past nine editions, from 2011 until today, we met at Băile Felix but also on the banks of Danube, in the Suceava Fortress but also in the Timisoara Fortress, in Bucharest or in Milan-Italy.

This year we have to meet “online”. Our lives are increasingly “online”, and our festival has no way to make a discordant note.

The Earth seems more and more tired and it is in a growing need for help. Unfortunately, this damn pandemic had to come to realize what is really valuable and what is not, how important it is to be able to enter a theater or cinema, what a great need we have to gather in arms.

Victor Hugo said that it is sad to think that the Earth speaks but people do not listen to it. Now I feel like the Earth is really screaming. We can’t pretend we don’t hear it anymore.

Dear friends, I’m glad to meet you again this year, even if it’s a remote meeting!

Next year, however, I would like to meet face to face, hug each other and tell how much we missed each other!

 

 Lavinia Sandru, President ECO Fest Romania

 
 
 
 
vladimir  

Vladimir Marin

Artistic Director ECO FEST


 
 
 

In Romanian folklore (fairy tale) there is a character – emperor who laughs with one eye and cries with the other. That’s how I think we should refer to this 10th edition of ECOFEST.

We are obviously sad because the anniversary edition is taking place in the midst of a pandemic disaster, which seems to shake the whole of existence on the planet. At the same time, it gives us a deep feeling of hope and optimism that we noticed in this case at many passionate filmmakers of documentary films focused on ecology.

In the harsh conditions of an international  festival organized in the online environment, we tried and I hope we managed to connect the author, producer and distributor of ecology films with a young audience, intelligent and educated, able and worthy to learn, to develop and apply the knowledge necessary to safeguard the environment.

We cannot end without hoping the desire for the next edition of our festival to take place under normal conditions, in which the audience in the screening room interacts directly with the festival organizers, film critics, along with scientists specialized in environmental issues.

 

Vladimir Marin

Artistic Director Eco Fest, Selector

 

 
     

 


SPONSORS and PARTNERS


 


INTERNATIONAL JURY


 

Costel Safirman

Israel – Director, film critic and historian


Film critic and historian, documentary film director. In Romania he worked as a book editor for the Meridiane Publishing House, as a researcher at the National Films Archive, as a television filmmaker, as a delegate producer of feature movies and as a film director at the “Alexandru Sahia” Documentary Film Studio.

In 1987 he immigrated to Israel. Since 1993, initiates and produces for the Jerusalem Cinematheque the project “Cinematic Variations on Live Classical Music” dedicated to music and film lovers. Between 1993 and 2011, in cooperation with the late historian Leon Volovici, he has been organizing the Jerusalem Cultural Club, whose purpose is to facilitate the spiritual bridging between the Romanian and lsraeli cultures.

He has published articles, studies, scientific, theater and film reviews and is a co-author of cinema dictionaries and encyclopedias published in Romania, lsrael and the USA. Among the documentary films he created: Directed by Liviu Ciulei, film TV, 1979 (Special Prize of the Jury granted by the Association of Romanian Film makers); Ars Longa, 1984; Tonight tears are falling for “La Dame aux Camelias”, 1986. “And They Went Away Like the Wind…” (in collaboration with Radu Gabrea), 2010.


grozev  

Alexander Grozev

Bulgaria – Film critic, Festival founder and director


  He is a very well-known film critic from Bulgaria. PhD in the Theory of Cinema, Professor of Film History at the South-West University, lecturer for film critic at the National Academy of Film. Jury member at many international film festivals. Member of the Bulgarian Filmmakers’ Association and member in the publishing board of Kino magazine, as well. Founder and Director of LOVE IS FOLLY – Film Festival in Varna, counting for 27 editions. Alexander Grozev was Manager of the National Film Center of Bulgaria, representing member of Bulgaria in the European Association for Media Programs. He published 16 books dedicated to film theory and history and wrote many reviews in publications from U.K., Germany, Russia.

 

Bogdan Movileanu

România – Film critic, Archivist

 


Graduate of National University of Theatre and Film “I.L.Caragiale” – Bucharest in 2009. He obtained his doctorate in 2016, the topic of his doctoral thesis “Superheroes of a modern mythology – between film and comics”.

Since 2006 he has been an editor and curator at the National Film Archive, and from 2016 he is a member of the Film Rating Commission of the National Center of Cinematography (CNC).

He was the coordinator of the Romanian stand of CNC at the Berlin Film Festival between 2016-2020 and at Cannes – 2015-2019. Co-writer of several student films and he was acting in the short film End slate, directed by Isabella Szanto.

Starting with 2018, he is the artistic director of the Central European Film Festival, in Timișoara.


     

SPECIAL GUESTS



 
 

Dan Curean

Journalist, Producer, TV organizer


Works in media starting 1990, as photographer and editor of the weekly NO, then  from 1994 is engaged on public television, Cluj regional studio. Here he is working as cinematographer, and as well in the  editorial segment as producer, and documentary filmmaker.

He was trained in Discovery Campus Masterschool – 2008.

Part of the teaching staff of the Faculty of Theatre and Television at the Cluj University ( UBB) since the beginning in 2005. In 2012 he achieved his doctoral thesis with the title Text and image in the mass-media.

Collaborations with some of major broadcasters in Europe and his filmography  includes author documentary productions  (screenplay, directing, photography), multi-awarded at festivals in the country and Europe.


     

 

Awards of the International Jury of Professionals


Best Photography Award


 

Ceahlau, a natural wonder


Romania – 2019


Screeplay : Dan Păvăloiu, Radu Pușcas
Narrator: Dan Păvăloiu
Director: Dan Curean
Photography: Dan Curean ,Daniel Sărăcuț, Zoltan Naghi,Cristian Mihai
Producer: Exclus Prod. – Consiliul Judetean Neamț


Best Screenplay Award

A simple life


USA – Greece – 2019


Screenplay – Myrto Papadogeorgou
Director & Photography
– Robert Harding Pittman & Myrto Papadogeorgou
Producer – City of Errors, Robert Harding Pittman


Best Direction Award


PescAmare


Italy – 2019


Screenplay : Luca Caprara & Andrea Lodovichetti
Director: Andrea Lodovichetti
Photography: Giovani Furlani & Luca Vagri
Editor: Nicola Nicoletti
Producer: LOBECA FILM in collaboration with the Municipality of Fano


Special Award of the Jury


 

Messages from the the end or the world


Switzerland – 2018


Director & Photography – Matteo Born
Producer – Michael Beltrami – RSI Radiotelevisione Svizzera


GRAND PRIX  ECOFEST 2020

awarded by the Jury of Students


 

Ceahlau, a natural wonder


Romania – 2019


Screeplay : Dan Păvăloiu, Radu Pușcas
Narrator: Dan Păvăloiu
Director: Dan Curean
Photography: Dan Curean ,Daniel Sărăcuț, Zoltan Naghi,Cristian Mihai
Producer: Exclus Prod. – Consiliul Judetean Neamț