Survey: How has the COVID-19 crisis affected the Romanian film industry? Part I
Today, the 9th of April, marks of an entire month since the Romanian authorities have taken the first measures to stop the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and the four-and-a-half weeks that have elapsed since have left behind a scantily-recognizable world: the Romanian cultural sector (along with, quite obviously, the global one) was forced to stop in its tracks, leaving thousands of cultural workers and artists without any immediate source of income. In the film industry, many activities had to immediately stop: film productions were put on hold, many cinemas closed down even before the state of emergency was officially decreed on the 16th of March, and every single festival that was slated to run this spring - One World Romania, American Independent Film Festival, Bucharest Fashion Film Festival, Moldova Film Festival and even TIFF, Romania's biggest festival - have been, as of now, postponed for an indeterminate amount of time. In the midst of this critical situation, instead of working to protect filmmakers, the Romanian National Film Center (CNC) has shuttered down and ceased all of its activities with little to no coherent reason, for the entire duration of the state of emergency, thus stopping all of its current payments to production houses and indefinitely postponing the results of its first funding session for this year - a situation so dire that 160 filmmakers signed an open letter in which they demanded that the authorities would revise this decision.
Film critic & journalist. Collaborates with local and international outlets, programs a short film festival - BIEFF, does occasional moderating gigs and is working on a PhD thesis about home movies. At Films in Frame, she writes the monthly editorial - The State of Cinema and is the magazine's main festival reporter.
