Twenty-one Romanian feature films are eligible to enter the nomination and judging process held by this year’s Gopo Awards, an event awarding the local film industry.

Internationally- awarded productions such as Cristian Mungiu’s Bacalaureat (Graduation), Cristi Puiu’s Sieranevada, Bogdan Mirica’s Caini (Dogs), Adrian Sitaru’s Ilegitim or Radu Jude’s Inimi Cicatrizate (Scared Hearts) are all eligible for this year’s award.

In order to be eligible for a nomination, films need to have been produced in Romania or co-produced but with a majority Romanian participation. They also need to have premiered between January 1st and December 31st of last year, and ran for at least a week in cinema halls, with ticket-based entrance.

Nominations for the feature film section are made without prior submissions for producers. The Best Documentary Film and the Best Short Film sections require however submissions in order to be considered by the jury. Nominations are announced one month before the event, and over 450 professionals in all areas of the Romanian film industry vote for the winners.

This year's edition of the event will take place at the end of March, in Bucharest.

Historical drama Aferim!, directed by Radu Jude, was the big winner at the 2016 edition of the event.

The movie won a total of 13 prizes, including the most trophies for Best Film, Best Director (Radu Jude), Best Script (Radu Jude and Florin Lazarescu), and the Audience Award (offered to the Romanian film with the biggest box office success in 2015). Aferim! also won the awards for Best Picture, Best Editing, Best Sound, Best Scenery, Best Costumes, Best Makeup, and Best Hairstyle.

The Gopo Awards are the national Romanian film awards, modeled after the Academy Awards (U.S.A.), the Goya Awards (Spain), or the César Award (France). They were established in 2007 and were named in honor of Romanian film director Ion Popescu-Gopo. The trophy is a sculpture by Romanian artist Adrian Ilfoveanu representing Gopo's Little Man, the main character of Gopo's animation films.

The 2017 edition is organized by the Association for Promoting Romanian Film, with the support of the National Film Center CNC and of Babel Communications.

editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Premiile Gopo Facebook Page)