When Transilvania Intl. Film Festival founder Tudor Giurgiu began sketching the blueprint for the first edition 25 years ago, the then up-and-coming director knew he wanted the country’s first international film event to be more than just a showcase of new Romanian cinema.

“I was dreaming that we could not just screen our films but present our upcoming projects to decision-makers. To have industry here,” says Giurgiu, who was still several years away from making his directorial debut with the 2006 Berlinale premiere “Love Sick.” The prospects for Romanian filmmakers were, by his own admission, “shitty”; Giurgiu even considered emigrating in search of greener pastures.

Instead, he decided to confront the challenge of “how to offer better exposure to our films” while also introducing an event that could serve “as a launchpad for new [Romanian] projects.” Hardly two years later, TIFF launched its Romanian Days industry section, and it quickly became what Giurgiu describes as the “flagship initiative of the festival.”

In the years that followed, Romanian Days would grow alongside its burgeoning industry, which crashed the international stage in 2005, when Cristi Puiu’s black comedy “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu” won the Un Certain Regard Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and became entrenched as a bona fide cinematic movement two years later when Cristian Mungiu’s “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” won the director the first of his two Palmes d’Or.

“It was this very interesting synchronicity between the splash of the Romanian films in Cannes with everything which was later branded as the Romanian New Wave, and the fact that the festival was growing very quickly,” says Giurgiu. “We became not just a 10-day showcase for Romanian cinema, [but] a year-round platform for promoting local cinema.”

In the wake of those early Cannes triumphs, the Transilvania Film Festival became one of the hottest tickets on the international circuit, as programmers, sales agents, distributors and other industry professionals scrambled to discover the next Puiu or Mungiu. Two decades later, Romanian Days “remain[s] committed to supporting emerging voices,” particularly from the host nation, according to newly minted industry head Ami Geger. Yet the platform has grown into a truly international event, expanding the geographical footprint of the countries it serves and widening its aperture to embrace the countless trends and challenges facing the global industry.

“This year’s program reflects many sides of filmmaking today, from development and financing to international distribution, music, series production and the opportunities, challenges and innovations that come with AI,” Geger says. “Some sessions look at broader trends and conversations around the international industry, while others focus more directly on the realities, challenges and opportunities within the Romanian industry.”

The program’s centerpiece remains the Transilvania Pitch Stop, a co-production forum open to first- and second-time filmmakers from Romania, Moldova, Hungary, Bulgaria, Serbia, Ukraine, Greece, Turkey, Georgia and — for the very first time — Cyprus and Albania. Among the films supported by the TPS since its first edition are “Apples,” by Greece’s Christos Nikou, which opened the Horizons sidebar of the Venice Film Festival in 2020; “La Civil,” by Romania’s Teodora Ana Mihai, which won the Prize of Courage in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard sidebar in 2021; Ukrainian director Maksym Nakonechnyi’s “Butterfly Vision,” which bowed in Un Certain Regard in 2022; and Mihai Mincan’s “To the North,” which was selected in Venice that same year.

This year’s selection includes new projects from Ukrainian filmmaker Philip Sotnychenko, whose debut, the crime thriller “La Palisiada,” was a Rotterdam premiere in 2023, and Turkish director Belkıs Bayrak, whose first feature, “GĂŒlizar,” played Toronto and San Sebastian two years ago. Also taking part in the forum is veteran Romanian cinematographer Adrian Silișteanu, presenting his feature debut, “Another Story About My Son,” and first-time filmmaker Octavian ƞaramet, with the folk-horror project “Sun Offspring.”

“Overall, the selection brings together a strong mix of established filmmakers preparing their next features and emerging voices with distinctive, internationally relevant stories,” says Geger.

A number of new wrinkles have been introduced to the 2026 edition of Romanian Days, including a Book to Screen program, open to Romanian authors, publishers and directors, that looks to tap into the growing global demand for adaptable IP. The Works in Progress screenings, meanwhile, have been expanded to showcase seven Romanian feature films in post-production, which will be bolstered by the launch this year of a €30,000 ($35,000) prize awarded by HBO.

Highlights from the industry program, which takes place from June 18 – 20, include a keynote address from veteran producer and European Film Academy chair Ada Solomon on the future of European film financing, and a focus on new funding models for European series. Several sessions will also spotlight the fast-moving developments around the use of AI in the industry, while the program is rounded out by a number of masterclasses from filmmakers including acclaimed Romanian auteur Corneliu Porumboiu — the subject of a retrospective at this year’s Transilvania festival — and maverick U.K. director Ben Wheatley, in town to promote his latest film, “Bulk.”

Above all, Geger says she hopes the industry sessions will serve as a catalyst “to create opportunities for meaningful exchange and connection — between local and international professionals, between different generations of filmmakers, and between people working across different areas of the industry. 

“We see TIFF as a place where these conversations can happen naturally, where ideas can be shared openly, and where new collaborations can take shape,” she says. “By bringing together both international perspectives and discussions that speak directly to the Romanian industry, we hope to create a program that is both inspiring and genuinely useful. If participants leave TIFF with fresh ideas, new connections and renewed energy for their projects and careers, then we’ll feel we’ve achieved what we set out to do.”

The Transilvania Intl. Film Festival runs June 12 – 21.