In The News
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Thank you to our supporters!
February 20, 2021
Our #filmfestival developed in time to become a landmark and a reason of pure joy for many of us, and many of you actively took part in this process. The 15th edition of Making Waves is made possible by the leading support of the Trust for Mutual Understanding and the JBFC Program Fund, with additional support from the Romanian National Film Center and individual donors. We deeply express our gratitude to your fidelity and support!

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For Your Consideration at Making Waves 15
February 18, 2021
The 15th anniversary edition of Making Waves opens on February 18 online in the U.S. with Alexander Nanau's acclaimed collective, short-listed for the Oscars in two categories. It is Romania's best shot ever at an Academy nomination and award, so make sure not to miss it, along with all the films selected for this edition, many in U.S. Premiere, deserving of nominations in select categories.

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Films & more
February 12, 2021
We may not be able to come together in a cinema this year, but the festival spirit is still here with filmmakers and Romanian film champions offering insighful takes on the new Romanian Cinema. We celebrate the U.S. Premiere of select new Romanian films with pre-recorded conversations with filmmakers. And more!

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Passes are now on sale
February 19, 2021
Passes for the 15th edition of Making Waves are available in the JBFC Virtual Marquee. Please note that no tickets are available to individual films, only series passes are available. Festival passes offer access to all films in the festival, introductions, as well as exclusive pre-recorded interviews with filmmakers and actors for the titles in U.S. Premiere.

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Feb 20: An afternoon with Richard: 15 years after the Romanian New Wave hit the US
February 12, 2021
On the occasion of the 15th edition of Making Waves, Salon Insula 42 is inviting you to an "essential conversation" with Richard Peña, professor of Film and Media Studies at Columbia University and one of the most dedicated champions of Romanian film in the U.S., on 15 years and more of Romanian film excellency.

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The festival trailer is now online!
February 9, 2021
Are you ready for the 15th Making Waves? The festival trailer is now online! Get a taste of what's to follow and stay tuned for more original material about the films and filmmakers of this edition.

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15th Making Waves announces lineup
February 3, 2021
We have some hot announcements for you: the Making Waves #15 program! The first good news is that each daily release of a film will be available for streaming for the next 48h. The second one is that the shorts can be accessed for the entire festival period. Starting with February 12 you can purchase the festival passes, so you don't have to worry anymore about the Valentine's Day gift for your loved ones.

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Get ready for the 15th MAKING WAVES: February 18-24, 2021
December 16, 2020
We are happy to announce that the 15th edition of Making Waves will take place exclusively online between February 18-24th, 2021, together with our long-term partners at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, NY. The best of #NewRomanianCinema will be back in the US according to the particular times we are living.

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“The Romanians” streaming through April 2021
May 15, 2020
With the current pandemic closing cinemas all over the world, the U.S. Tour of the retrospective is on hold. But we bring you now many of the series titles on VOD. Making Waves proudly presents a 15-film selection of the retrospective, with some of these titles available for the first time online for wider U.S. audience. Find below the full list of films that are now streaming.

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10 titles of “The Romanians” are available online in Europe
July 29, 2020
After traveling around the world and meeting the American and Canadian audiences, “The Romanians Go On” spreads all over Europe. Gathering 10 landmark films from some of the most acclaimed directors, Making Waves continues its program in virtual cinema. Here it`s the full line-up.

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Canada, start watching online “The Romanians”!
July 28, 2020
Our series “The Romanians Go On” is also available for the Canadian territory. With a selection of 10 titles, Making Waves invites the public in this area to enjoy some of the best Romanian films of the last three decades. Find below full list of films.

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Film Bonus: THE PAPER WILL BE BLUE online in the US & worldwide
July 14, 2020
Launching today worldwide and for the first time ever in the US, Radu Muntean`s chronicle of revolutionary chaos and confusion - “The Paper Will Be Blue”.

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Virtual Cinema Expands @BAMPFA
July 14, 2020
Making Waves partners up with UC Berkeley Art Museum and Film Archive (BAMPFA) and presents to the American audience four titles of “The Romanians”. After launching some titles in partnership with Film Forum and Lightbox Film Center, BAMPFA joins us.

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Launching in the US: THE STATE OF THINGS & LUXURY HOTEL
June 27, 2020
We are launching today two new award-winning films from early 1990s, little known in the U.S. Though very much of their time, these examinations of revolution, social conviction, immorality and autocracy feel particularly relevant today.

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STUFF AND DOUGH now streaming worldwide
June 6, 2020
June 5, 2020 - Cristi Puiu's groundbreaking debut film becomes available for streaming in the U.S. and can now be rented or purchased worldwide. It is also featured in the Virtual Cinema selection of Film Forum New York and Lightbox Film Center in Philadelphia.

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Streaming in Canada & U.S.: DO NOT LEAN OUT THE WINDOW
May 29, 2020
May 29, 2020 - If any film can be said to bridge the gap between Romanian cinema prior to 1989 and today, it’s Do Not Lean Out the Window (E pericoloso sporgersi), Nae Caranfil’s wry look at the final years of communism.

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VIDEOGRAMS OF A REVOLUTION opens today in the US!
May 29, 2020
May 29, 2020 - Starting today, Andrei Ujică and Harun Farocki's landmark VIDEOGRAMS OF A REVOLUTION becomes for the first time available for streaming in the U.S. and internationally.

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You can now watch “The Romanians” online!
May 15, 2020
Making Waves is now taking place online and has made a 13-film selection of the retrospective available for streaming in the U.S., with many of these titles available for the first time online for wider U.S. audiences. See the selection NOW STREAMING and upcoming.

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Support Making Waves Film Festival in times of Coronavirus
April 2, 2020
Making Waves had to postpone all the tour`s screenings scheduled in different US cities. We appreciate your support and your understanding as we try to protect each other and to overcome these uncertain times. If you would like to make a donation to help Making Waves survive, we would be extraordinarily grateful.

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“The Romanians on U.S. Tour” is currently postponed
March 11, 2020
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, “The Romanians on U.S. Tour” had to postpone its screenings scheduled in cinemas. Making Waves festival team together with their partners decided to postpone the following screenings of the tour until further notice.

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See Andrei Ujică`s trilogy @BAMPFA in Berkeley, CA
February 7, 2020
Director Andrei Ujică joined Making Waves 14 at Film Forum in New York last autumn. The tour of the Retrospective presents two screenings of his trilogy: Videograms of a Revolution & The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceaușescu on February 12 and February 16, at BAMPFA Berkeley, California.

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The 2019 New Releases ran December 5-10
January 29, 2020
Complementing the 30-year retrospective, Making Waves returned at the Jacob Burns Film Center from December 5-10, 2019 with the traditional panorama of the best new releases of the year.

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MO’ star Dana Rogoz & director Radu Dragomir @ JBFC
December 4, 2019
Presenting his debut film in the U.S. Premiere, director Radu Dragomir will join Making Waves/New Releases at Jacob Burns Film Center on December 7, 7:30 p.m. for the screening of MO. Title character of the film, beloved actress Dana Rogoz will also be present there for the Q&A session. 

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THE WHISTLERS’ star Rodica Lazăr @ JBFC
November 29, 2019
A mainstay of many of the New Wave films (from The Death of Mr Lazarescu to Principles of Life, The Last Day, or Ramona), actress Rodica Lazăr will join the Making Waves/New Releases opening night screening of The Whistlers on December 5 at the Jacob Burns Film Center for a Q&A session.

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Director Tudor Giurgiu at MW2019
October 24, 2019
One of the oldest friends of Making Waves, director Tudor Giurgiu will be coming to New York for the screening of his 2012 film Of Snails and Men on November 23. Parking, his fourth feature, is also being featured in this year's New Releases program.

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Actor Andi Vasluianu joins the Retrospective
October 24, 2019
One of the most prolific and talented actors of his generation, Andi Vasluianu joins  us at Film Forum for the presentation of two titles in the retrospective: Cristian Nemescu's California Dreamin' (Endless) on Thu, November 21, and Of Snails and Men by Tudor Giurgiu, who will also be in New York for the screening (Sat, November 23).

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Legendary Film Forum joins Making Waves
October 25, 2019
Legendary NYC film institution, Film Forum has joined the 14th edition of Making Waves to co-present the largest program dedicated to Romanian cinema presented in the U.S. to date: THE ROMANIANS: 30 YEARS OF CINEMA REVOLUTION, a 12 day, 30-film series celebrating three decades of post-Ceausescu cinema, from November 15-26, 2019.

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Making Waves receives the support of TMU and other donors
October 24, 2019
The 14th edition of Making Waves is made possible with the support of the Trust for Mutual Understanding, Romanian Filmmakers Union, Dacin Sara, the Romanian National Film Center, Blue Heron Foundation and numerous individual donors.

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Making Waves Celebrates 30 Years of New Romanian Cinema with U.S. Tour
January 29, 2020
Making Waves has launched a nationwide tour of The Romanians: 30 Years of Cinema Revolution. A selection of the program will tour throughout the U.S. through May 2020, beginning at the University of California at Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA).

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VIRTUAL CINEMA: ''The Romanians'' (through April 2021)
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Luxury Hotel
October 20, 2019
An ambitious young manager attempts to refresh the stale ambiance of a restaurant inside a luxury hotel, only to find his initiatives questioned by the boss of the establishment. Punished for his daring, he is downgraded from the higher floors where the privileged live to the very basement of the Kafkaesque building and has to face treachery and deceit that prevent him from leading a normal life. A Silver Lion winner at the 1992 Venice Festival, this visual feast is a curious allegory about living in a totalitarian regime, in which the main character is Ceaușescu’s pharaonic palace and the heaviest building in the world, ironically called The People’s House. "Highly recommended for fans of dystopian social satire.” - J.B. Spins

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Videograms of a Revolution
September 28, 2019
For Videograms of a Revolution, Andrei Ujică and Harun Farocki collected amateur video and material broadcast by Romanian state television after it was taken over by demonstrators in December 1989. The audio and video represent the first revolution in which television played a major role. The film’s protagonist is contemporary history itself.
"By the end of the week, and the Ceausescus’ executions, nothing is real – or historical – until it is seen on television.” – Michael Atkinson, The Village Voice

Director Andrei Ujica in person (Film Forum, Nov 15, 6:30 pm / BAMPFA, Feb 12)

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Do Not Lean Out the Window
October 20, 2019
If any film can be said to bridge the gap between Romanian cinema prior to 1989 and today, it’s Nae Caranfil’s Don’t Lean Out the Window, a wry look at the final years of communism. The film follows the stories of two young men and a woman – humorously labeled The Student, The Actor and The Soldier – and then intertwines them, charting their journeys in a system that’s collapsing around them. In the course of the film, the three switch roles, the actor becoming a soldier of sorts while the student learns the value of acting. Unlike many other Romanian films of the era, Don’t Lean Out the Window refused to engage in the polemic that emerged with the fall of communism. Its protagonists are nuanced, complex characters, who’ve learned to survive and even thrive in an environment that often bred hypocrisy in even the simplest of social exchanges.

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The State of Things
October 20, 2019
Stere Gulea’s film seems intent on revealing life’s tragic paradoxes and sad ironies as reflected in recent Romanian history. It is December 21, 1989 and a severely wounded teenager shows up in the middle of the night at the front door of a young nurse. She takes him to a hospital where her fiancé works, only to find the teenager in the hospital’s morgue the following morning, shot in the head. In the chaos that ensues, the couple is pressured into providing fake documents that would absolve the secret police of being responsible for his death, as well as many others. The woman refuses to collaborate and thus her nightmare begins: She is arrested and convicted on a trumped-up charge, and is consequently humiliated, beaten and raped in prison. Her only comfort remains the child she is carrying.

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Stuff and Dough
October 24, 2019
The “stuff” in this debut feature by The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu and Sieranevada director Cristi Puiu – one of the pioneers of the post-Ceauşescu Romanian filmmaking renaissance – is a satchel full of black-market prescription drugs. The “dough” is 2,000 lei (around $500) promised to small-town teen Ovidiu (Alexandru Papadopol) if he agrees to carry the package to Bucharest on behalf of a local gangster (Răzvan Vasilescu). He does, inviting his slacker friend Vali (Dragoş Bucur) along for the ride, who in turn invites his apathetic girlfriend Bety (Ioana Flora). This unlikely trio then takes to the highway – the hilariously deadpan road movie that results is a reminder that Puiu, who originally had ambitions of becoming a visual artist, has cited a viewing of Jim Jarmusch’s Down by Law as a key event in his decision to pursue filmmaking.

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Niki and Flo
October 24, 2019
A very black comedy, Niki and Flo is about ill-suited neighbors united by marriage. Angela and her husband have decided to leave Romania for a better life in the United States. Niki, Angela's father, a former colonel in the Romanian army, is torn between his wish to see his daughter happy and his desire to have her remain nearby. Meanwhile Flo, the father of Angela’s husband and a domestic tyrant of sorts, slowly exerts his control over Niki. The screenplay was written by Cristi Puiu and Răzvan Rădulescu, who collaborated on Stuff and Dough and The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu. “A mordant almost-comedy that represents a bridge — and also a battle — between the old Romania and the new [...] its observant naturalism infused with a delicate, almost coy sense of the absurd" – A.O. Scott, The New York Times

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The Great Communist Bank Robbery
October 24, 2019
An unusual robbery at the Romanian National Bank in 1959 triggered a massive police search, and an even more unusual outcome. When the alleged burglars were caught and arrested, they reenacted their crime for a TV movie film in which they played themselves. Although evidence suggests the criminals believed they would be spared the death sentence by appearing in the film, the reality was different. Described by director Alexandru Solomon as a “political detective story,” this documentary investigates both a historical mystery and the transformation of history into film.

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The Death of Mr Lăzărescu
October 24, 2019
The film that, for many people, signaled the emergence of the new Romanian cinema, Cristi Puiu’s second feature was a revelation at Cannes 2005, where it took top prize in the Un Certain Regard section. A sardonic, darkly humorous, compulsively vibrant feature, The Death of Mr Lăzărescu seems so realistic and convincing, unfolding as though in real time, that it’s hard to believe it was acted. As it follows an ailing retired engineer, too fond of booze, who gets carted from one overtaxed Bucharest hospital to another in search of proper medical care, a whole stressed society is laid bare: Each doctor, nurse, paramedic and patient leaps into view with individuality and articulate self-defensiveness. Compassion and indifference clash, often within the same person. The fluid, mobile camera recalls the great works of Fred Wiseman and John Cassavetes.

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The Way I Spent the End of the World
October 24, 2019
Bucharest 1989: the last year of Ceauşescu’s dictatorship. Eva lives with her parents and her seven-year-old brother Lalalilu. She is 17 years old, very attractive and caught up in the turmoil of falling in love for the first time while struggling to come of age. Eva has a secret dream she shares only with her brother: escaping from Romania and traveling the world. Along with his best friends from school, Lalalilu devises a plan to kill the dictator so that Eva can stay and live in a free country. The Way I Spent the End of the World opened in Cannes 2006, in the Un Certain Regard section, with Dorotheea Petre winning the Special Jury Award for Best Actress.

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Crulic – the Path to Beyond
October 25, 2019
This chilling documentary is “narrated” by Claudiu Crulic, a young Romanian in Poland who was arrested for a crime he didn’t commit, only to become a pawn in a Kafkaesque miscarriage of justice that resulted in his death from a hunger strike. Combining innovative hand-drawn, cutout and collage animation techniques, director Anca Damian crafts a devastating portrait of a man who stood up to an uncaring bureaucracy – and paid the ultimate price

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Domestic
October 25, 2019
There’s a tender and humorous touch to this light collection of tales about people who eat the animals they love, and the animals that love people unconditionally. A rabbit, a cat, a dog, a hen, and a pigeon share screen time with a wonderful ensemble of actors playing the residents of an apartment building, revealing the very small distance that separates humans from animals. Despite a certain cruelty or disdain for the creatures in question, the eventual love one finds in an animal companion is wonderful to witness in Adrian Sitaru’s masterfully written and choreographed film.

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Of Snails and Men
October 25, 2019
A group of desperate workers come up with the unusual idea of donating sperm in order to save their car factory from bankruptcy and, consequently, from being privatized. The official line is that French investors plan to take over the plant and convert it into a snail cannery. But the stark truth is that they will just sell off the heavy machinery and disappear. This Full Monty-like bittersweet comedy is based on a true story from Romania in the 1990s, fresh from overthrowing Ceauşescu’s regime, when Romanians thought that anything was possible.

Director Tudor Giurgiu and actor Andi Vasluianu in person (Film Forum, Nov 23, 2019)

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Aferim!
October 25, 2019
“Shot in richly toned, wide-screen black and white, Aferim! looks like an elegant exercise in period playacting. But it casts a fierce, revisionist eye on the past, finding the cruelty and prejudice that lie beneath the pageantry.” - The New York Times. Radu Jude’s international breakthrough is a picaresque odyssey through 19th-century Romania, which tackles one of the most shameful episodes in the country’s history: the enslavement of the Roma people. As a bounty hunter and his son scour the mountains for a fugitive slave, they are thrown into a series of encounters by turns scathingly funny or utterly horrifying. Stunningly shot in glimmering, widescreen black and white, Aferim! plays like a classic western spring-loaded with cutting social commentary.

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Pororoca
October 25, 2019
“This is muscular hard-art fare that… could propel Popescu into the upper ranks of his country’s auteurs.” - Variety It is every loving parent’s worst nightmare: the devastating disappearance of a beloved child, and then their desperate struggle to stay sane while trying to save their marriage. The long scene in which the little girl goes missing in a park full of people is a movie in itself, masterfully staged by Constantin Popescu (Tales from the Golden Age), and challenges us to pinpoint the exact moment when everything goes wrong. It makes for intense viewing that is only more visceral thanks to Bogdan Dumitrache’s raw performance playing the father consumed with obsession and guilt.

Director Constantin Popescu in person

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BAMPFA Special: The Paper Will Be Blue
July 14, 2020
[Special addition to "The Romanians", presented in collaboration with BAMPFA] A clueless tank crew wanders Bucharest’s chaotic streets during one epoch-changing night in Radu Muntean’s humanistic portrait of people who aren’t concerned with making history, just trying to live through it. It’s the night of December 22, 1989, now famous as the date when dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu’s regime finally toppled: madness, paranoia, and revolution are in the air, but the young soldiers of one armored unit have, like everyone else, no clue as to what’s actually happening. Rumors are swirling all around: the army has sided with the regime, the police with the people, or is that vice-versa?; the demonstrators are either revolutionaries, terrorists, or secret police, and the TV station is controlled by one, some, or none of the above. Zeroing in on a few specific hours as lived by a few young men, The Paper Will Be Blue gives history back to the people, capturing the banal and memorable, terrifying and bemusing moments that all “historic times” are made of, yet that are never discussed.

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15th Making Waves (Feb 18-24, 2021)
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collective
February 1, 2021
Alexander Nanau. 2019, Romania, 109 min.
In the aftermath of a tragic fire in a Romanian music club called Colectiv, more burn victims begin dying in hospitals from wounds that were not life threatening. A team of investigative journalists move into action to uncover massive corruption in the health system and other state institutions. Following journalists, whistle-blowers, and government officials, collective is an immersive and uncompromising look into the price of corruption and the price of truth. Continue reading

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The Campaign
February 1, 2021
Marian Crișan. 2020, Romania, 93 min
U.S. Premiere! Followed by pre-recorded interview with filmmaker Marian Crișan
A quiet tractor driver from a small town meets a high profile politician whose car broke down nearby and welcomes him into his house until the vehicle gets fixed. Under investigation for corruption, the politician runs for a seat in the European Parliament that will grant him immunity. He seizes the opportunity... Continue reading

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Malmkrog
February 1, 2021
Cristi Puiu. 2020, Romania, Serbia, Switzerland, Sweden, BiH, Macedonia, 200 min
A landowner places his snow-bound manor house at the disposal of some friends: a politician, a young countess, a Russian General and his wife. For the guests, time goes by slowly, with rich meals, society games and long talks about death and the Antichrist, progress and morality. As the discussion takes shape and the various topics are broached... Continue reading

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House of Dolls
February 1, 2021
Tudor Platon. 2020, Romania, 68 min
U.S. Premiere! Followed by pre-recorded conversation with Tudor Platon
First time director Tudor Platon is granted access to a special universe: the annual vacation of a bunch of 70-year-old ladies. Far from men and the madness of daily life, Cica, Nana and their two other friends isolate themselves voluntarily in a villa in the countryside... Continue reading

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Ivana the Terrible
February 1, 2021
Ivana Mladenović. 2019, Romania, 86 min
U.S. Virtual Screening Premiere. Followed by interview with Ivana Mladenović
Ivana Mladenović is a Romanian director born in Serbia who made headlines with a tabu-breaker debut called Soldiers. Triggered by a personal crisis from when the director was finishing this provocative first feature and made right after it, almost like a therapy session, Ivana the Terrible is a playful exercise in vulnerability and narcissism... Continue reading

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Legacy
February 1, 2021
Dorian Boguță. 2019, Romania, 105 min
U.S. Premiere! Followed by a pre-recorded conversation with actress Irina Rădulescu
When a famous pianist goes missing, the policeman who takes over the case gradually learns about the artist's troubled destiny, his bizarre relationships and the decisions that triggered a whirl of surprising events. We get to meet his circle of workers and close friends, his lover and his worried sister who reported the disappearance... Continue reading

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Acasă, My Home
February 1, 2021
Radu Ciorniciuc. 2019, Romania, 86 min
For two decades, nine kids and their parents lived freely in a shack in the wilderness of Bucharest Delta: an abandoned water reservoir, one of the biggest urban natural reservations in the world. When the authorities decide to claim back this rare urban ecosystem, the family is told to resettle in the city and kids that used to spend their days in nature have to learn about city life. Awarded in Sundance... Continue reading

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The Christmas Gift
February 1, 2021
Bogdan Mureșanu. 2018, Romania, 23 min
In the midst of the December 1989 Romanian Revolution, a father’s quiet evening turns to sheer nightmare as he finds out that his son wrote and mailed a letter to Santa Clause asking for the death of Ceaușescu, no less.

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Sandals
February 1, 2021
Anton & Damian Groves. 2019, Romania, 18 min
The bigger-than-life true story of a Romanian “Phileas Fogg”, who took on a challenge to travel around the globe in a thirteen-year journey, becomes a meticulously animated moral lesson about perseverance in the face of loss.

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Celed
February 1, 2021
Anghel Damian. 2019, Romania, 23 min
A father offers his 7-year-old boy to a shepherd as a helper, but on the first day of work, he loses a sheep. The desperate search that follows turns this fable set in present-day Romania into a harsh and coming-of-age story.

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Sorrow
February 1, 2021
Sarra Tsorakidis. 2020, Romania, 28 min
After many years of living abroad, Eli comes home to attend her mother's cremation. The family reunion brings out old misunderstandings and unresolved differences in this stylish and darkly humorous melodrama.

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Bucharest Seen from Above
February 1, 2021
Andrei Răuțu. 2020, Romania, 17 min
A charming old lady (played by pop star Marina Voica) needs to be taken to the elderly care home. A cloud of guilt begins to engulf the sunny Bucharest sky when the family members realise what they are about to do. 

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Sașa and Petre
February 1, 2021
Luca Istodor. 2020, Romania, 10 min
Sașa talks about his convoluted 45-year long relationship with Petre in a time when homosexuality was criminalised, in this surprising and inventive mix of documentary and stop-motion animation.

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MW15 Bonuses
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Insula 42 Salon with Richard Peña
February 20, 2021
On the occasion of the15th online edition of Making Waves, Salon Insula 42 invited Richard Peña for a live "essential conversation" with Corina Șuteu on 15 years and more of Romanian film excellency and its reception in the U.S.

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MW15 Interviews: Ivana Mladenović
February 9, 2021
Get a sneak peek at the conversation between director Ivana Mladenović and Making Waves president Corina Șuteu on IVANA THE TERRIBLE. The full interview is available to stream after the film.

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MW15 Interviews: Marian Crișan
February 13, 2021
For the 15th online edition of Making Waves, we celebrate the U.S. Premiere of select films with pre-recorded conversations with their filmmakers. Director Marian Crișan speaks with artistic director Mihai Chirilov about THE CAMPAIGN. Here's a glimpse.

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MW15 Interviews: Tudor Platon
February 16, 2021
Director Tudor Platon discusses with Making Waves president Corina Șuteu about his debut feature HOUSE OF DOLLS. The full interview is available to stream after the film.

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MW15 Interviews: Irina Rădulescu
February 14, 2021
Get a sneak peek at the conversation between actress Irina Rădulescu and Making Waves artistic director Mihai Chirilov on LEGACY, directed by Dorina Boguță. The full interview is available to stream after the film.

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MW15 Recommends: Mihai Chirilov on this edition’s program
February 15, 2021
Artistic director Mihai Chirilov on the selection of the 15th edition of Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema.

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MW15 Recommends: Andrei Șerban on The Best Shorts
February 11, 2021
Andrei Șerban, the highly regarded Romanian theatre director and Columbia University Professor of Theater, makes a beautiful recommendation of the six shorts in the festival.

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MW15 Recommends: Andrew Jupin on COLLECTIVE
February 10, 2021
JBFC Senior Film Programmer Andrew Jupin on Alexander Nanau's COLLECTIVE, shortlisted for the Academy Awards in the Best Documentary and Best International Film categories.

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MW15 Recommends: Andrei Codrescu on THE CAMPAIGN
February 18, 2021
Poet, novelist, and essayist Andrei Codrescu offers a charming take on Marian Crișan's latest, THE CAMPAIGN, presented at MW15 in U.S. Premiere.

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MW15 Recommends: Mihai Chirilov on MALMKROG
February 12, 2021
Artistic director Mihai Chirilov on Cristi Puiu's latest opus, MALMKROG.

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MW15 Recommends: Richard Peña on HOUSE OF DOLLS
February 19, 2021
Richard Peña, professor of Film and Media Studies at Columbia University, introduces Tudor Platon's debut HOUSE OF DOLLS, presented in U.S. Premiere.

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MW15 Recommends: Richard Peña on IVANA THE TERRIBLE
February 18, 2021
Richard Peña, professor of Film and Media Studies at Columbia University, introduces IVANA THE TERRIBLE, a film by Ivana Mladenović, presented in U.S. Virtual Premiere.

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MW15 Recommends: Richard Peña on LEGACY
February 19, 2021
Richard Peña, professor of Film and Media Studies at Columbia University, introduces LEGACY, the debut feature of actor-director Dorian Boguță, in U.S. Premiere

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MW15 Recommends: Andrew Jupin on ACASĂ, MY HOME
February 18, 2021
JBFC Senior Film Programmer Andrew Jupin on Sundance-winner ACASĂ, MY HOME, by Radu Ciorniciuc

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The 15th Making Waves Trailer
February 5, 2021
Watch the 15th edition trailer!

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Critics’ Corner
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Cine-File: A new review of Nae Caranfil`s film (available online)
June 23, 2020
"DO NOT LEAN OUT THE WINDOW is a boisterous film that looks at the seismic shift in Romanian society with the cautious joy of a caged animal set free. It is a crucial precursor to the revelatory Romanian New Wave that should not be missed."

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NY Times: Film Series to Catch in N.Y.C. 
November 20, 2019
"In Romania, the democratic reforms that followed the execution of Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989 also turned the country into a global filmmaking powerhouse, culminating in what has been called the Romanian New Wave."

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NYRB: J. Hoberman recommends
October 30, 2019
"These thirty films also include some of the best made anywhere during the past three decades."

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MW public – Andrei Codrescu: “In Praise of New Romanian Film”
December 7, 2019
The New Wave festival returns to New York every year with astonishing new films, alongside a well-curated archive. I wouldn't miss it for the world.

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J.B. Spins: “Luxury Hotel” – For fans of dystopian social satire
November 20, 2019
"Luxury Hotel could have probably only been produced during the immediate post-Ceausescu aftermath, when the palace was available, in all its faded grandeur. It is definitely spectacle, but serious, distinctively pointed spectacle."

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Screenslate: “The Autobiography of N. Ceaușescu”- conceived as a flashback
November 20, 2019
"And now it is our turn, all these decades later, to be the ones to look and learn."

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J.B. Spins: “The Oak” – Deeply compelling cinema
November 20, 2019
"The Oak is a defiantly bold, chaotically head-spinning indictment of Ceausescu Socialism, but it is also deeply compelling cinema. This is definitely auteurist cinema from Pintilie that still connects on a profoundly human level."

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The Criterion Collection: Romanians… in America
November 20, 2019
"Film Forum will be showcasing thirty Romanian films made during the thirty years since the overthrow and execution of iron-fisted dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu."

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Film Comment
October 20, 2019
„The Romanian New Wave shows no signs of waning, with steady input from such directors as Corneliu Porumboiu, Cristi Puiu, and Cristian Mungiu."

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Reuters
October 20, 2019
„The former communist country has emerged as a powerhouse of cinema over the last two decades and much has been made about the Romanian New Wave, a genre of naturalistic and unflinching films that have been consistently winning top prizes such as the Palme d’Or in Cannes and awards at the Berlin and Venice festivals.”

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The New York Times
October 20, 2019
„In the last decade, the emergence of a Romanian new wave has been one of the most startling developments in world cinema, with one film after another winning prizes at Cannes and elsewhere.”

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The Wall Street Journal
October 20, 2019
"Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema, the annual weeklong survey that has helped define and establish the southeastern European country as a stronghold of socially incisive, independently minded personal cinema.”

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The Wall Street Journal
October 20, 2019
„Romania cinema has gradually become a central component of international film culture."

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Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema is the longstanding Romanian Film Festival in New York. Initiated and presented by Film ETC Association, in partnership with leading U.S. organizations, including the Jacob Burns Film Center (since 2013), Film Forum (since 2109), BAM (since 2017), or the Film Society of Lincoln Center (2011-2015).

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