The International Feature Film Competition of Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival (BIEFF) presents once again a selection of titles that impress with their formal diversity and inventiveness, and were directed by some of the most acclaimed emerging filmmakers of the moment. Now in its fourth edition, the BIEFF International Feature Film Competition is dedicated to filmmakers making their first or sophomore feature films, bringing together five works that have been presented this past year at prestigious festivals such as Berlinale, Locarno, Rotterdam, Toronto, and FIDMarseille.
After working with Miguel Gomes on The Tsugua Diaries and Grand Tour, French Lisbon-based filmmaker Maureen Fazendeiro returns with The Seasons, selected this year at both Locarno, in the Official Competition, and Toronto. Weaving accounts of rural workers with fieldnotes of a couple of archaeologists, amateur footage with scientific drawings, legends, poetry, and songs, the film is a journey through the real history and the tales of Alentejo, a region in southern Portugal, and a portrait of the people who have lived there.
Also from Toronto, where it will have its world premiere this week, comes the enigmatic Levers, the second feature film of Canadian director Rhayne Vermette. After an unexpected solar phenomenon leads to a total one-day blackout, the lives of a sculptor, a security guard, and a dedicated civil servant from Red River Valley intersect in mysterious ways in this exploration of collective mourning which was shot on 16mm film with several broken Bolex cameras and stands out for its surreal aesthetic and cryptic narrative.
Debut, or, Objects of the Field of Debris as Currently Catalogued by American filmmaker Julian Castronovo, which premiered earlier this year at Rotterdam, presents new possibilities for ultra-lo-fi independent cinema. Made on a modest budget of only $900 and using an innovative DIY approach, the film, inspired by Orson Welles’ “F for Fake”, begins with the true story of New York gallerist Eli Sakhai, convicted of forging several artworks, to build a fascinating detective story filled with elusive clues and plot twists—all while surfing on a computer in his bedroom.
For her first feature, MACDO, presented this summer in the First Film Competition of FIDMarseille, Mexican filmmaker Racornelia draws inspiration from both her own childhood and the aesthetics of telenovelas and home movies to transport us in the middle of a 1990s Christmas dinner. Against the backdrop of an apparently warm holiday gathering, the film reveals the dynamics within a family trying to appear perfect in the eyes of their guests, exposing the complex way in which love and power intersect, blurring the lines between proximity and domination.
Presented this year in the Forum section of Berlinale and awarded the Grand Prix at Nowe Horyzonty, Punku, by Peruvian director Juan Daniel Fernández Molero, draws inspiration from David Lynch and Maya Deren in order to take us on a journey through the Amazon, where a Matsigenka Indigenous teenager discovers a boy who vanished two years ago and was presumed dead. Determined to save him, she embarks on a journey that will change both of their lives.
The films in the International Feature Film Competition of BIEFF.15 will be screened between September 23-27 at Cinema Elvire Popesco, four of them for the first time in Romania, and will compete for the Best Feature Film Award. The winner will be chosen by a jury composed of Savina Petkova, film critic, curator, and a senior editor at “Talking Shorts”, a platform devoted to long-form short film criticism, Cătălin Cristuțiu, editor and editing advisor known for his work on Radu Jude’s entire body of work, as well as other over 100 feature films, short films, and TV series, and Vanja Milena Munjin Paiva, film programmer, researcher, and member of the central programming committee of the Valdivia International Film Festival.
Four films made by the Argentine collective El Pampero Cine at BIEFF.15
The Argentine collective El Pampero Cine, a formidable force in contemporary independent cinema, will be the subject of a special focus at BIEFF.15, with four titles from their catalog of over 25 films made over the last two decades screened for the first time in Bucharest, and a masterclass held by filmmakers Laura Citarella, Mariano Llinás, and Agustín Mendilaharzu.
One of the longest films in history and the masterpiece of director Mariano Llinás, La Flor, a complex narrative made up of six independent stories, connected by the same four actresses (Pilar Gamboa, Elisa Carricajo, Laura Paredes, and Valeria Correa), takes us backwards through time and the history of cinema, starting with popular genres like horror and soap operas and arriving at homage and purely experimental cinema, both working inside the bounds of popular tropes and destabilising them completely. With a total runtime of 13 and a half hours, the film will be screened from September 26 to 28 at Cinema Union, in three separate screenings with intermissions.
Presented in the Orizzonti Competition of the 2022 Venice Film Festival and named the best film of 2023 by Cahiers du Cinéma, the monumental Trenque Lauquen by Laura Citarella follows two men from the Argentine city who embark on a search for a missing woman whom they both love. An epic filled with mystery and supernatural elements, from ghosts to mutant underwater creatures, the four-hour film will be screened on Thursday, September 25, at Cinema Union, in a two-part screening.
The most recent of the films presented in the focus, Folk Traditions of the Land by Mariano Llinás brings to the forefront musician Ignacio Corsini, whose life and work represent a door to Argentine history, from the history of music to everyday politics. The film will be screened on Tuesday, September 23, at Cinema Union, as the opening of the special focus dedicated to El Pampero Cine.
Filmmakers Laura Citarella, Mariano Llinás, and Agustín Mendilaharzu will also hold an open masterclass on the unique working method of the El Pampero Cine collective. This method is defined by producing films with extremely limited resources that favor a form of full creative and political independence, allowing the collective members to test and rewrite the conventions and boundaries of the medium with each new project. The masterclass will take place on Wednesday, September 24, at the Cinema Hall of the National University of Theatre and Film “I.L.Caragiale”, with admission free of charge.
The event will be preceded by a screening of Clementina, directed by Agustín Mendilaharzu and Constanza Feldman. Filmed during the pandemic and presented in 2022 at Rotterdam, the film finds cinematographer and director Agustín Mendilaharzu and actress Constanza Feldman living together for the first time during lockdown. Removed from their old lives, the two decide to shoot a short inspired by Constanza’s struggle in adjusting to the new home. Yet, once the film is completed, the problems in real life continue—the beginning of a new comedy, with Clementina in the lead role.
Passes for the 2025 Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival are now on sale on Eventbook.ro. Aiming to make the festival experience more accessible to a wide range of audiences, regardless of economic status, this year BIEFF has adopted a “pay what you can” policy, including four pricing tiers for general passes. The festival encourages audiences to join this gesture of solidarity by choosing one of the four specially priced passes based on their individual means.