Romanian Film Screenings

at Sheffield DocFest 2024

We are pleased to inform you that the Romanian Cultural Institute in London supported the participation of director Cristina Haneș and producer Elena Martin at the 31st edition of the International Documentary Film Festival: Sheffield DocFest, which took place from 12 to 17 June in Sheffield, in the county of South Yorkshire in northern England.

The Sheffield DocFest International Documentary Film Festival is the leading documentary festival in the UK and one of the most influential markets in the world for the development of documentary projects. Sheffield DocFest is organised by the Sheffield International Documentary Festival, an independent charity whose aim is to promote the art of film, education and training in documentary filmmaking. The festival supports, presents and awards all forms of documentary film, television, immersive and art.

The cultural-cinematic project was supported again this year by important industry partners who promoted and distributed the documentary film: The British Film Institute, Sheffield City Council, Marketing Sheffield, Arts Council England, BBC, Channel 4, ITV, British Council, Prime Video, Netflix, BBC Studios, Warner Chappell Production Music, Sky Documentaries, Sheffield Hallam University, Channel 5, National Geographic, Warner Bros. Discovery, The University of Sheffield, Getty Images, Scottish Documentary Institute, BAFTA and many others.

This year's edition featured 48 world premieres, 14 international premieres, 17 European premieres, and 28 UK premieres from 56 production countries, and it recorded an increase in audience attendance of over 20% compared to 2023. This year's festival program introduced several innovative sections, including films, live podcast events, TV series premieres, and virtual reality exhibitions. International industry presence also increased with 2,283 delegates from 73 countries attending the festival in person over the six days (up from 60 countries in 2023). 179 industry representatives from 128 companies and 24 countries participated in over 1,031 in-person meetings with 49 selected projects and 16 “new talents” during the festival’s market days.

The short documentary film Blue, directed by Ana Vijdea and produced by Elena Martin, was selected to participate in the international competition and had its world premiere at the Sheffield festival on June 13. The creative feature documentary Green Is the Fire's Tint, directed by Cristina Haneș and currently in development, was selected as part of Meet Market, a program for the film industry that involves meetings with various professionals to co-finance, distribute or sell films (sales agents, television stations).

Elena Martin studied at the National University of Theatre and Cinematography "I. L. Caragiale" in Bucharest, where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in Audiovisual Communication and a master's degree in Film Production. Since 2019, she has been working at Manifest Film, and in 2021, she co-founded Filmways, a film production company dedicated to promoting emerging filmmakers in the field of fiction and documentary film. She is an alumnus of CineLink Producers Lab, East-West Talent Lab and Ex Oriente Film and Series. She has been part of projects such as Acasă, My Home (director Radu Ciorniciuc), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival; Timebox (director Nora Agapi), acquired by HBO, and Între Revoluții, which premiered at the Berlinale Forum 2023. Elena Martina develops and produces feature films, series, short films, both documentary and fiction, alongside established and emerging directors.

Cristina Haneș is a documentary film producer, director and screenwriter who co-founded NoCut Film Collective in 2016 with two other independent filmmakers from Italy and India, producing auteur documentary films. NoCut Film Collective’s first production, the feature-length documentary “A Rifle and a Bag” (2020, India, Romania, Italy, Qatar) won the Special Jury Mention at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) 2020 in the Bright Future Competition, where it had its world premiere. The film festival’s track record to date includes selections at Visions du Reel (Swiss award), First Look @ Museum of Moving Image in NYC (US premiere), Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival (Greek premiere), One World Romania (Romanian premiere). Her documentary short film “António e Catarina” (2017, 40 minutes, Portugal) won the Pardino d’Oro Award for Best International Short Film at Pardi di Domani at the 2017 Locarno Film Festival. It was screened in over 25 film festivals worldwide. She is an alumna of DocNomads MA and Aristoteles Workshop. She graduated with a BA in Cinematography in 2013 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

The festival offered viewers the unique opportunity to discover the latest documentary film productions and debate the most relevant topics in the world of global documentary. Alongside the captivating discussions with the creators and filmmakers of the films, viewers had the opportunity to interact and meet special guests from the film industry. A large number of partners and collaborators supported the program. Promotion was conducted both indoors and outdoors, as well as in the digital environment on the festival website, ICR Facebook pages, and the ICR London website. The intense promotion attracted over 10,000 spectators, representing all age categories and balanced between genders.

Benefiting from the festival's cultural infrastructure, participation in this event provided the two Romanian documentary productions with significant visibility among film critics, journalists, and professionals interested in documentary films, as well as the general public. Questions from the audience revealed a demonstrated interest in the Romanian documentary film Blue, and the participation of the creative feature-length documentary Green Is the Fire's Tint at MeetMarket generated a professional exchange of ideas through one-on-one meetings with 16 representatives of institutions, festivals and televisions from the USA, Canada, Qatar, Great Britain, France, Germany, Czech Republic, Jordan, Greece, Croatia, Spain, which will allow the project to develop in the future.

The opportunity to be associated with the most famous festival in the local and international cultural market demonstrated excellence and innovation in contemporary Romanian cinema.

LISTINGS & PRESS:

ROMANI IN UK

SHEFFIELD DOCFEST

SHEFFIELD DOC FEST 2024