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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

𝐓𝐀𝐈𝐅𝐀𝐒 - The Balkan Film and Culture Festival brings arthouse cinema closer to the public, connects diverse communities, and supports the new generation of filmmakers. The first edition, "New Beginnings," took place from 𝟓-𝟏𝟐 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 2023, in Timișoara – the year Timișoara held the title of European Capital of Culture. We see the Balkans as a state of mind and a way of life, not necessarily a geographical area.

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, Melissa Ivana - 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

Victor Ion - Volunteer coordinator

Livia Coloji - Graphic Design

Felicia Cojocaru, Ada Vlad - PR & Communication

Daria Dan – Ticketing Manager

Sandu Macrinici - Film Education Conference Coordinator