Indian director Shuchi Talati’s debut feature Girls Will Be Girls was the big winner at this year’s Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF) in Cluj, Romania
The coming-of-age story about a teenage girl from a boarding school in the Himalayas won the Transilvania Trophy at the festival’s awards ceremony in Cluj’s historic National Theatre on Saturday evening (June 22).
Girls Will Be Girls previously won the audience award and special jury prize when it premiered in the world dramatic competition at Sundance in January.
Scroll down for full list of winners
In her acceptance speech sent as a video message, Talati said ”this film is very rooted in India, but I had always hoped that it would touch people outside of this very unique space and time where it is set, and I feel like this award says that.”
It is the second Indian film in TIFF’s 23-year history to take home the festival’s top award after Anand Gandhi’s Ship of Theseus in 2013.
The other Indian film in TIFF’s main competition was also in the spotlight on Saturday evening when PS Vinothraj received the special jury prize for The Adamant Girl which had its world premiere in the Berlinale’s Forum in February. The Tamil writer-director won the same prize in Cluj in 2021 for his debut Pebbles.
The best director award went to Colombian director Sebastián Quebrada for his debut feature The Other Son which had its world premiere at last year’s San Sebastián Film Festival. Accepting the award on the National Theatre’s stage, Quebrada quipped that it was a kind of recompense for Romania having beaten Colombia at the FIFA World Cup on two occasions in 1994 and 1998.
His comment came as the UEFA Euro 2024 match between Belgium and Romania kicked off during the ceremony which meant there were a noticeably large number of vacant seats in the auditorium as many guests chose football over the closing ceremony.
TIFF president Tudor Giurgiu had announced at the beginning of the ceremony that the evening’s proceedings would be as short as possible this year so that the audience could then watch the match, which subsequently ended in a 2- 0 victory for Belgium.
The festival went as far as moving its open-air screening of Mariana and Santiago Arriaga’s Upon Open Sky from the town’s main Unirii Square so that locals could watch the live broadcast of the game there for free.
UK cinema will be the country of focus at next year’s festival, said Giurgiu. The 24th edition will take place June 13 - 22, 2025.
Full list of Transilvania International Film Festival winners
Transilvania Trophy
Girls Will Be Girls, dir. Shuchi Talati
Best Director Award
Sebastián Quebrada, The Other Son
Special Jury Award
The Adamant Girl, dir. Vinothraj Palani
Best Performance Award
Hassan Pourshirazi, The Old Bachelor (dir. Oktay Baraheni)
Special Mention of the Jury
Jarne Heylen and Joël in ‘t Veld, Summer Brother (dir. Joren Molter)
Audience Award
Summer Brother, dir. Joren Molter
Romanian Days Award for Feature Film
Dismissed, dirs. Horia Cucută, George ve Ganæaard
Special Mention of the Jury for Romanian Days Feature Film
Family Weekend, dir. Mihnea Toma
Romanian Days Award for Debut
Alice On & Off, dir. Isabela Tent
Romanian Days Award for Short Film
Truth or Dare, dir. Simona Borcea
“What’s Up, Doc?” Award
Kix, dir. Dávid Mikulán, Bálint Révész
Special Mention of the Jury “What’s Up, Doc?”
Alice On & Off, dir. Isabela Tent
La Reine, dir. Nikola Klinger
Award for the Most Popular Romanian Film in the Festival
Moromeții 3, dir. Stere Gulea
Ecumenical Jury Award
Summer Brother, dir. Joren Molter
Special Mention of the Ecumenical Jury
Where Elephants Go, dir. Cătălin Rotaru, Gabi Virginia Șarga
SIGNIS Award
Cat Funeral, dir. Ana-Maria Comănescu
FIPRESCI Award
Alice On & Off dir. Isabela Tent
Excellence Award
Actress Catrinel Dumitrescu
Special Award for Contribution to World Cinema
Daniele Luchett
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