Eugen Jebeleanu’s Internal Zero will have its world premiere at the third edition of Smart7, the travelling competition across seven European film festivals.
The seven titles, one from each of the festival’s respective countries, will screen at the Vilnius International Film Festial in Lithuania, which runs from March 7-23, before travelling to Portugal’s IndieLisboa, Spain’s Filmadrid, Transilvania International Film Festival, Poland’s New Horizons, Iceland’s Reykjavik and finishing at Greece’s Thessaloniki International Film Festival.
Internal Zero follows a secretary navigating a hostile Bucharest and stars Valentina Zaharia, Cendana Trifan, Cristina Drăghici and Katia Pascariu. It is Romanian filmmaker Jebeleanu’s second feature after Poppy Fields which screened at Tallinn Black Nights and BFI Flare as well as picking up the audience award at Transilvania.
Other films in the Smart7 line-up include Sandra Romero’s debut As Silence Passes By from Spain, which opened San Sebastian last year; Denise Fernandes’ Hanami from Portugal, winner of debut awards at Locarno and Goteberg; and Laurynas Bareiša’s Drowning Dry from Lithuania, winner of best acting and directing in Locarno.
At the end of the festival run, one of the films’ directors will receive a €5,000 prize awarded by an international jury of young film professionals. Last year’s winner was Maria Zbąska’s debut It’s Not My Film from Poland.
Smart7 Competititon 2025
As Silence Passes By (Spain), dir. Sandra Romero
Drowning Dry (Lith-Lat), dir. Laurynas Bareiša
Epilogues (Ice-Bel-Nor), dir. Ari Alexander Ergis Magnússon
Hanami (Port-Cape Verde-Switz), dir. Denise Fernandes
Internal Zero (Rom), dir. Eugen Jebeleanu
Meat (Gre), dir. Dimitris Nakos
Travel Essentials (Pol-Ger), dir. Kamila Tarabura
No comments yet