TAIFAS - Balkan film and culture festival
TAIFAS - The Balkan Film and Culture Festival is the result of a collaboration between two organizations passionate about art cinema, particularly Balkan cinema - Contrasens Cultural Association and Bad Unicorn.
TAIFAS goes beyond the niche of the film industry. The complementary elements of the event turn it into a broad interdisciplinary project that combines film, gastronomy, and music.
TAIFAS is a story about people, places, and connections, about shared histories, pains, and pleasures.
From the smallest gestures to moments that changed countries and destinies, it's hard to find memorable successes that didn't start with a “taifas”.
Taifas refers to that good conversation among friends that ends with a constructive conclusion, a less constructive one, or even a dead end. Because a “taifas” never comes alone. It's preceded by one “taifas”, and more than likely, it's followed by another one.
Taifas is what happens after a few months spent in the Balkans. An added layer of emotion, closeness, spark, and resonance. An ever-honest exchange, knowledge pushing beyond socially accepted boundaries and transcending them, familiarity par excellence.
Taifas can be in any of the arts, but above all, taifas is an art. We engage in cinematic taifas with others and with ourselves. We seek truth, find delight, set ambitious goals or aim for nothing, in any case, we enjoy. From short scenes to long ones, from gentle lines to those that lash out, from old frames to new ones, from the light that gently touches places and people.
Chatter with substance or without, the purpose of taifas is taifas itself.
ABOUT US
The Balkan Film and Culture Festival, 𝐓𝐀𝐈𝐅𝐀𝐒, brings art cinema closer to the audience, connects diverse communities, and supports a new generation of filmmakers. The first edition, “New Beginnings”, will take place from 𝟓𝐭𝐡 to 𝟏𝟐𝐭𝐡 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑, in Timișoara - the year in which the city holds the title of European Capital of Culture. We understand the Balkans as a state of mind and a way of life rather than just a geographical region.
TAIFAS is a story about people, places, and connections, about shared histories, pains, and pleasures.
Team
Cătălin Olaru - Art director
Dana Sarmeș - Executive Director
Monica Felea - Operational director
Simona Constantin - Producer
Ștefan Bradea – Programming Manager
Andrea Reisz - Educational programs coordinator
Alexandru Hygied - Literary residency coordinator
Sînziana Pintean - Film residency coordinator
Ana-Maria Cratiță – Guest Relations Manager
Melissa Ivana - Youth film program coordinator
Victor Ion, Daniel Săvescu - Volunteer coordinators
Livia Coloji - Graphic Design
Felicia Cojocaru, Ada Vlad - PR & Communication
Cristiana Dolhascu - Public relations