And this year, we’re celebrating the 20th anniversary edition. Across five days (30 Nov-4 Dec), we will screen a great selection of Romanian features, documentaries, and short films. All screenings will take place at Curzon Soho, one of London’s premier art house cinemas. The trailer for the festival has just dropped. You can watch it here: https://vimeo.com/885701795. Don’t forget to pass it on.

You can find more about the festival screenings on our website: www.rofilmfest.com. There will be further updates as we near the start of the festival, including details of special guests, so do check the site regularly.

The last 20 years of the festival has passed by in a flash. But in that time, we have witnessed the unstoppable rise of what became known as the Romanian New Wave, whose films we supported from the very first edition, in 2003. The filmmakers, actors and producers brought about a real revolution in Romanian cinema and influenced a new generation of filmmakers – both at home and beyond.

There are echoes of the Romanian New Wave in the current films featuring in this year’s festival. But there is also so much more – whether it’s subject matter or style. What they all share is a desire to tell stories with universal appeal.

The festival has always been proud of the support it has received from the filmmakers whose films we screen. Over the years, we have played host to some of Romania – and world cinema’s – finest directors. Once again, this year will see many of the filmmakers responsible for this year’s films in attendance. We’re looking forward to welcoming directors Cristian Mungiu, Tudor Giurgiu, Vlad Petri, Oana Bujgoi Giurgiu, Bogdan Mirica and Sebastian Mihailescu, who will all join us for Q&A sessions. And we’re delighted to welcome back one of the festival’s longest-standing friends, Corneliu Porumboiu, this time in his role as producer.

We are also proud to welcome back acclaimed actor Vlad Ivanov, who is appearing in three films at this year’s festival: In Familiar, The Name of the Father and in his international breakthrough role in Cristian Mungiu’s Cannes-winning 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. Following the festival opening night screening of Familiar, Vlad will join us on stage to talk about his career, from his pivotal cameo in this film through to his work on the stage and screen, both at home and internationally.

The screening of 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (on 35mm, no less), is also an opportunity to celebrate one of the leading lights of Romanian cinema, Cristian Mungiu. He will be present to introduce his latest film R.M.N. and will take part in a post-screening Q&A. It’s not just a chance to hear from a world class filmmaker about his process and worldview, Cristian will also be talking about another recent project, his book Tania Ionașcu, bunica mea. O poveste basarabeană (Tania Ionașcu, My Grandmother. A Bessarabian Story). He describes it as ‘the biography of my grandmother. Her family – and all the Romanians living [in Bessarabia] – had to decide if they should leave or stay there following an ultimatum by the Soviets who announced that they would annex the province… It has a sinister and striking resemblance to what happens in Ukraine today.’ A UK publisher is looking to translate the book, but this will be the first opportunity for British audiences to hear the author-filmmaker speak about it.