BUZZ CEE International Film Festival, organized in Buzau between the 4th and 9th of July has an international competition for feature filme, documentary, short film and student film.

This year, we offer a balanced competition, with films covering all audience categories, and we are very glad to have had so many films from so many countries enter the competition. This shows us that BUZZ CEE successfully fulfils its purpose of promoting and supporting the movie industry in the region. We eagerly await the audience in the cinema halls. We hope they fully enjoy the films, alongside us, and appreciate the creativity and quality of the selected productions. – Aurelian Nica, artistic director of BUZZ CEE

This year’s edition features 29 films, selected from sixteen different countries and from 1500 films submitted. The nominated films were chosen by a jury of three Romanian film critics: Forin Barbu, Cristi Marculescu and Bogdan Besliu.

The 29 films that have been selected come from countries like Serbia, Turkey, Cyprus, Germany, Albania, Austria, Belarus, Croatia, Hungary, The Czech Republic, Slovenia, Ukraine, Russia, Greece and Romania. The winners of the competition will receive the BUZZ CEE awards – Long BUZZ (for the Feature Film CEE category), Real BUZZ (for Documentary feature CEE), Short BUZZ (Short Film CEE) and Student BUZZ (for Student Film CEE).

The winning projects will be chosen by juries made of film professionals from Romania and the CEE, and the public will be invited to vote for their favorite film, which will be awarded the Pop BUZZ trophy.

ADFR has selected from each section of the competition some titles that you cannot miss:

• Last day (Romania, 2016, feature film) – Directed by Gabriel Achim, The Last Day centres on a special journey undertaken by four men from a provincial town. The mayor, the policeman and the leader of the Christian youth association accompany their friend Adrian on his trip to a monastery, where he has decided to start a new life as a monk. The mayor, an amateur filmmaker, offers to film the group’s journey to the monastery, but he also has some secret plans for Adrian.
• A mere breath (Romania, 2017, documentary) – the film explores the profound contradictory nature of love within the family. Both a journey of initiation and a theological parable, the film follows 7 years in the life of Sicrea family in Romania, capturing the trials and tribulations of Dobrin who is waiting for a miracle to happen, to enable his youngest daughter to get up from her wheelchair. As we see his children becoming adults, we witness how his close connection to God deeply impacts the family relationships. The film won the GOPO award for Best Documentary at this year’s gala.
• Last Chance (Belarus, short film, 2017) – directed by Igor Vasilyev , the film tells the story of thirteen year old rider Irisha who’s preparing for a horse show and cannot cope with her fear of weather her horse will take the barrier. Experienced coach Pavel Pavlovich wants to help the girl find faith in herself, and blames the horse, promising to send it “to retire.” Worrying about the fate of her faithful friend, Irisha asks coach to give them a last chance.
• Technically, you see what you want to see (Romania, student film, 2017) – A short documentary about the crew of Odeon Theatre from Bucharest, directed by Vera Suratel

Off-competition, BUZZ CEE has prepared special screenings with special guests for its public. Here are some of our recommendations:

• Ana, Mon Amour (D: Calin Peter Netzer / Romania, 2017) – Winner of the Silver Bear for editing at this year’s Berlinale, the film will be screened on Tuesday, 4^th of July from 22pm at George Ciprian Theatre in Buzau. The screening will be followed by a Q&A session with main actress Diana Cavaliotti;
• The Man who was Thursday (D: Balasz Just / USA, 2016) – Wednesday, 5^th of July, from 9:30pm, there will be a special screening in the presence of director Balasz Just and actress Ana Ularu at George Ciprian Theatre.
• BUZZ CE started a tradition at their first edition last year, by presenting an off-competition section where women directors from Central and South-Eastern Europe are promoted. Some of the film of this year’s edition of BUZZ Women are: Double (D: Catrinel Danaiata / Romania, 2016, feature film), The Block (D: Maria Salaru, documentary / Romania, UK, 2016). The films within BUZZ Women will be screened Saturday, 8^th of July and Sunday, the 9^th at Amfiteatru Studio (Muzeul Judetean) and Theatre George Ciprian.

For more information about this year’s edition of BUZZ CEE, check the following links:

The entrance is free to all films and special screenings.

Romina Banu

Photographer and editor; she co-founded Dissolved Magazine together with Melissa. For Films in Frame she gathers film and TV series recommendations for lazy weekends and she writes about interesting projects from the film industry. Other than that, she likes traveling, chilling with her cats and sleeping.