Mexican author, screenwriter, and producer Guillermo Arriaga will be part of this year's jury of the Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF).

Arriaga is known for his scripts for Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel, and The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, which won the best screenplay award at the Cannes film festival in 2005. Last year, Arriaga won the Alfaguara literary award for Salvar el fuego.

The jury also includes Katriel Schory, the executive director of the Israel Film Fund and founder of Belfilms, who produced over 150 features, series, and documentaries; American actor, director, and producer Scott Coffey, the director of Ellie Parker, and known for his roles in John Hughes' Some Kind of Wonderful and David Lynch's Mulholland Drive; and Romanian actor Maria Popistașu, the female protagonist of Radu Muntean's Întregalde and known for her roles in Romanian films such as Radu Muntean'sTuesday, After Christmas or Tudor Giurgiu's Love Sick. The fifth member of the jury is to be announced.

TIFF also unveiled the 12 films competing for the Transilvania Trophy. All 12 entries will screen in Romania for the first time at the festival. Nine of the productions are feature film debuts of directors who are just starting or directed documentaries or series before this. Two Romanian films have been included in the competition selection, as well as Hungary's Oscar's proposal this year (Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time) and the winner of a FIPRESCI prize at the 2021 Berlinale (What Do We See When We Look at the Sky).

The films in the competition are: Apples, directed by Christos Nikou (Greece, Poland, Slovenia); Marygoround, directed by Daria Woszek (Poland); Pebbles, directed by P.S. Vinothraj (India); Poppy Field, directed by Eugen Jebeleanu (Romania); Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time, directed by Lili Horvát (Hungary); That Was Life, directed by David Martín de los Santos (Spain, Belgium); The Flood Won't Come, directed by Marat Sargsyan (Lithuania); The Last Bath, directed by David Bonneville (Portugal, France); The Pink Cloud, directed by Iuli Gerbase (Brazil); The Whaler Boy, directed by Philipp Yuryev (Russia, Poland, Belgium); Unidentified, directed by Bogdan George Apetri (Romania, Latvia, Czech Republic); and What Do We See When We Look at the Sky, directed by Alexandre Koberidze (Georgia, Germany).

TIFF, scheduled to take place between July 23rd and August 1st in Cluj, will open with Cesc Gay's The People Upstairs. The festival recently announced a collaboration with San Sebastian International Film Festival and an extensive Focus Spain program for this year's edition.

(Photo: Nicu Cherciu, courtesy of TIFF)

simona@romania-insider.com