Anonimul International Film Festival (AIFF), scheduled to take place between August 14th and August 20th in Sfântu Gheorghe, in the Danube Delta, will open with the Romanian premiere of Marco Bellocchio's Kidnapped.

The film was screened in this year's main competition of the Cannes Festival, while director Marco Bellocchio holds the first Anonimul trophy awarded by the festival - in 2004 for the film Buongiorno, note.

Also outside of the competition, the festival will screen Wang Bing's Youth (Spring) and Catherine Breillat's Last Summer, both films selected in this year's race for the Palme d'Or.

The evening focused on Romanian cinema is dedicated to the national premiere of Radu Jude's latest film, Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World. The film is included in the main competition of the Locarno Film Festival.

This year's edition of the festival will also line up nine other Romanian features in the Romanian OFF Section. The public will be able to see, before their cinema release, productions such as Sebastian Mihăilescu's Mammalia, Andrei Tănase's Tiger, Alexandru Solomon's Arsenie. An Amazing Afterlife, Carla Maria Teaha's Nora, Vlad Petri's Between Revolutions, and Claudiu Mitcu's All the rivers fall into the sea and the sea never fills.

The festival will end with a screening of Official Film of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 Side A by Japanese director Naomi Kawase, who will be present in Sfântu Gheorghe to accept the Anonimul award for her contribution to world cinema.

Kawase will introduce some of her films that are part of the festival's program and will meet the audience and guests in a masterclass she is set to deliver at the festival.

The festival's program includes short film feature competitions for both Romanian and international productions, and a feature competition gathering the latest films of auteurs who have been featured in the Anonimul selection throughout the years.

The Anonimul trophy, worth EUR 3,000, will be granted following a public's choice vote. The awards for best Romanian and international features, amounting to EUR 1,000 each, will be granted the same way. At the same time, Anonimul Foundation will grant the Ovidiu Bose Paştină Award, worth EUR 1,000, to a short film in the Romanian or international competition.

Access to all festival screenings is free.

The program is available here.

(Photo: Dragos Asaftei, courtesy of Anonimul)

simona@romania-insider.com