Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema | Film Festival

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Thank you to our supporters!

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!

For Your Consideration at Making Waves 15

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.

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!

Passes are now on sale

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.

Feb 20: An afternoon with Richard: 15 years after the Romanian New Wave hit the US

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.

The festival trailer is now online!

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.

15th Making Waves announces lineup

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.

Get ready for the 15th MAKING WAVES: February 18-24, 2021

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.

“The Romanians” streaming through April 2021

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.

10 titles of “The Romanians” are available online in Europe

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.

Canada, start watching online “The Romanians”!

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.

Film Bonus: THE PAPER WILL BE BLUE online in the US & worldwide

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”.

Virtual Cinema Expands @BAMPFA

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.

Launching in the US: THE STATE OF THINGS & LUXURY HOTEL

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.

STUFF AND DOUGH now streaming worldwide

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.

Streaming in Canada & U.S.: DO NOT LEAN OUT THE WINDOW

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.

VIDEOGRAMS OF A REVOLUTION opens today in the US!

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.

You can now watch “The Romanians” online!

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.

Support Making Waves Film Festival in times of Coronavirus

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.

“The Romanians on U.S. Tour” is currently postponed

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.

See Andrei Ujică`s trilogy @BAMPFA in Berkeley, CA

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.

The 2019 New Releases ran December 5-10

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.

MO’ star Dana Rogoz & director Radu Dragomir @ JBFC

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.

THE WHISTLERS’ star Rodica Lazăr @ JBFC

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.

Director Tudor Giurgiu at MW2019

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.

Actor Andi Vasluianu joins the Retrospective

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).

Legendary Film Forum joins Making Waves

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.

Making Waves receives the support of TMU and other donors

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.

Making Waves Celebrates 30 Years of New Romanian Cinema with U.S. Tour

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).

NOW STREAMING: 15th Making Waves (Feb 18-24, 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

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

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

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

Ivana the Terrible

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

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

Acasă, My Home

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

The Christmas Gift

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.

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.

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.

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.

Bucharest Seen from Above

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.

Sașa and Petre

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.

MW15 Bonuses

Insula 42 Salon with Richard Peña

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.

MW15 Interviews: Ivana Mladenović

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.

MW15 Interviews: Marian Crișan

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.

MW15 Interviews: Tudor Platon

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.

MW15 Interviews: Irina Rădulescu

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.

MW15 Recommends: Mihai Chirilov on this edition’s program

Artistic director Mihai Chirilov on the selection of the 15th edition of Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema.

MW15 Recommends: Andrei Șerban on The Best Shorts

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.

MW15 Recommends: Andrew Jupin on COLLECTIVE

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.

MW15 Recommends: Andrei Codrescu on THE CAMPAIGN

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

MW15 Recommends: Mihai Chirilov on MALMKROG

Artistic director Mihai Chirilov on Cristi Puiu's latest opus, MALMKROG.

MW15 Recommends: Richard Peña on HOUSE OF DOLLS

Richard Peña, professor of Film and Media Studies at Columbia University, introduces Tudor Platon's debut HOUSE OF DOLLS, presented in U.S. Premiere.

MW15 Recommends: Richard Peña on IVANA THE TERRIBLE

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.

MW15 Recommends: Richard Peña on LEGACY

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

MW15 Recommends: Andrew Jupin on ACASĂ, MY HOME

JBFC Senior Film Programmer Andrew Jupin on Sundance-winner ACASĂ, MY HOME, by Radu Ciorniciuc

The 15th Making Waves Trailer

Watch the 15th edition trailer!

VIRTUAL CINEMA: ''The Romanians'' (through April 2021)

Videograms of a Revolution

Do Not Lean Out the Window

The State of Things

Stuff and Dough

The Great Communist Bank Robbery

The Death of Mr Lăzărescu

The Way I Spent the End of the World

Crulic – the Path to Beyond

Of Snails and Men

BAMPFA Special: The Paper Will Be Blue

Critics’ Corner

Cine-File: A new review of Nae Caranfil`s film (available online)

"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."

NY Times: Film Series to Catch in N.Y.C.

"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."

NYRB: J. Hoberman recommends

"These thirty films also include some of the best made anywhere during the past three decades."

MW public – Andrei Codrescu: “In Praise of New Romanian Film”

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.

J.B. Spins: “Luxury Hotel” – For fans of dystopian social satire

"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."

Screenslate: “The Autobiography of N. Ceaușescu”- conceived as a flashback

"And now it is our turn, all these decades later, to be the ones to look and learn."

J.B. Spins: “The Oak” – Deeply compelling cinema

"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."

The Criterion Collection: Romanians… in America

"Film Forum will be showcasing thirty Romanian films made during the thirty years since the overthrow and execution of iron-fisted dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu."

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

„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.”

The New York Times

„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.”

The Wall Street Journal

"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.”

The Wall Street Journal

„Romania cinema has gradually become a central component of international film culture."

Team

Corina Șuteu
Festival President

Corina Șuteu is the initiator and president of the Romanian Film Festival in New York since 2006. An international cultural consultant, she was Romania's Minister of Culture.

Oana Radu
Festival Manager

Oana Radu is a cultural manager and cultural policy consultant. Co-founder of Film ETC Association and manager of Making Waves.

Mihai Chirilov
Artistic Director

Co-founder of the Romanian Film Initiative, Mihai Chirilov has been the Artistic Director of the Romanian Film Festival in NYC since its founding in 2006.

Andi Vasluianu
Co-Founder & MW Ambassador

Andi Vasluianu is one of the most prolific and talented actors of his generation. A co-founder of Film ETC. Association and Making Waves Ambassador.

Elvira Lupșa
Development Associate

Elvira Lupșa joined Film ETC. since its launch in 2012. She conceived the first successful crowdfunding campaign for a major Romanian project - the independent 2012 Making Waves Festival.

Elena Coman
Social media coordinator

Our new team member, Elena Coman is a theater critic, cultural events planner and publicist.

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