Iranian director Dornaz Hajiha's Like a Fish on the Moon was the big winner of this year's Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF), held in Cluj – Napoca. 

Together with Carolina Markowicz, who took home the Best Directing Award, and director Tia Kouvo, winner of the Special Jury Award, Hajiha's win marks a first in the history of the festival as the most important awards were won by women. 

"Whether you're a five-year-old or a grown man in your fifties, the pressure to do things you don't want to do is terrifying. I'm glad that the jury understood the message of this film," Dornaz Hajiha said upon being presented with the EUR 10,000 Transilvania Trophy. The first Iranian film to win the Transilvania IFF official competition impressed the jury with "the originality of the idea behind the plot and the intelligence in tackling sensitive issues related to parenthood."

Sepidar Tari, the protagonist of Like a Fish on the Moon, won the Best Performance Award. She shares the award with Nacho Quesada, who plays the lead role in the Argentinian film The Barbarians. 

Meanwhile, Carolina Markowicz won the Best Directing Award for Charcoal. The EUR 3,500 prize was offered by Fortech. At the same time, the relationship dynamics and dry humor of her debut film earned Finland's Tia Kouvo the Special Jury Prize for Family Time and EUR 1,500 from Cemacon. 

In the Romanian Days competition, Andrei Tănase won the Debut Award for Day of the Tiger, offered by Banca Transilvania. Between Revolutions was named Best Feature Film, and Vlad Petri's film was singled out by the jury for "the strong emotion it stirs in viewers." The director will receive a prize of EUR 1,500, offered by Dacin Sara, and analogue laboratory services worth EUR 10,000, offered by Cinelab Romania.

Now in its second year, the What's Up, Doc competition's big winner was Anhell69, a documentary by Theo Montoya chronicling the story of a generation that has to deal with violence in the city of Medellin. The prize of EUR 2,000 was offered by TenarisSilcotub.

American director Oliver Stone and Australian actor Geoffrey Rush received the Lifetime Achievement Award, while Romanian actor Horațiu Mălăele was rewarded for his career in film and theatre with the Excellency Award.

"All the awards I have received so far, and there have been many important ones, are overshadowed by the fact that I am here in Cluj-Napoca, in a theatre that reminds me of the beginning of my career. Everywhere I have been in Cluj and its surroundings, I have always been received with love, and that can only make me feel honored," Geoffrey Rush said in a speech he gave half in Romanian.

Carbon, directed by Ion Borș, received the Audience Award.

The full list of awards is available here.

(Photo courtesy of TIFF)

simona@romania-insider.com