'To The North' directed by Mihai Mincan won the Romanian Filmmakers Union (UCIN) Grand Prize and Trophy in the 2024 edition of the UCIN Awards Gala, taking place at the Bucharest National Opera on Monday evening.
Director with the Culture Ministry Ioan Matei presented the awards to producers Ioana Lascar and Radu Stancu.
"Almost every week we all watch Romanian films admitted to grand international festivals, others that are nominated to important awards and, gladly, very many Romanian films are the recipients of international, renowned awards. I want, in this sense and in this context, to convey Mrs Minister Raluca Turcan's salute to everything that you do for the Romanian cinematography and for the Romanian culture overall, I want to congratulate the nominees this evening, and not only them, but obviously, the winners of this gala," Ioan Matei said.
Ioana Lascar said the prize represents "an appreciation" of the work of the team who made the film.
"We are very grateful for this prize which we surely receive as an appreciation of our work, the work of our partners, actors, the team involved. We have had the privilege of being endorsed by over 18 institutions, financiers, national and international partners, to produce this film in co-production with France, Greece, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, to shoot in three countries, with actors and a team from four territories and five languages spoken. (...) What we wish for now is to be able to continue, to make films as ambitious as this one and to this end we need a legal framework related to the 2024 industry and the current economy," Ioana Lascar said.
The film directed by Mihai Mincan was also rewarded with the Screenplay Award - Mihai Mincan, Best Actor - Niko Becker, Editing Award - Dragos Apetri, Soundtrack Award - Nicolas Becker, Cyril Holtz, Benjamin Laurent.
This year's UCIN Awards are:
* Grand Prize and Filmmakers Union Trophy - "To the North," directed by Mihai Mincan;
* Special Jury Prize - "Don't Expect Too Much from the End of the World," directed by Radu Jude;
* "Lucian Pintilie" Directing Award - Tudor Giurgiu for "Freedom";
* Screenplay Award - Mihai Mincan for "To The North";
* Best Image Award - Andrei Butica for "Boss";
* Costume Award - Corina Gramosteanu for the movie "The Dream";
* Scenery Award - Corina Gramosteanu for "The Dream";
* Best Actress Award, ex-aequo, Ilinca Manolache for the role of Angela Raducanu in "Don't Expect Too Much from the End of the World" and Catalina Moga for the role of Vera in "Tiger".
* Best Actor Award - Niko Becker for the role of Dumitru in "To The North";
* Best Supporting Actress Award - Emilia Dobrin for her role in "Sentimental Education";
* Best Supporting Actor Award - Nicodim Ungureanu for the role of Gutuie in "The Dream";
* Editing Award - Dragos Apetri for "To the North";
* Soundtrack Award - Nicolas Becker, Cyril Holtz, Benjamin Laurent for "To The North";
* "Adrian Enescu" Original Music Award - Alin Zabrauteanu, Calin Torsan for "Warboy";
* Short Fiction Award - Alma Buhagiar for "Sentimental Education";
* Documentary Film Award - "Playback," directed by Iulia Rugina;
* Animation Film Award - Ion Octavian Frecea for "The Promise";
* Television Film Award - "Fenomenul Piata Universitatii - Am scapat de comunism pe cont propriu" (University Square Phenomenon - We got rid of Communism on our own), directed by Razvan Butaru;
* "Alexandru Tatos" Opera Prima Debut Award - Carla-Maria Teaha for "Why do they call me Nora, when my sky is clear?";
* Cinema Hopes Award - Daniel Balis for the role of Nicu in "Warboy".
The jury of this year's edition of the UCIN Awards Gala included Manuela Cernat, Miruna Berescu, Lia Bugnar, Vlad Paunescu, Andrei Zinca.
Also awarded at the Gala were:
* The "Mihnea Gheorghiu Gheorghiu" Academic Awards, for the whole activity, went to actress Simona Bondoc and director, screenwriter and producer Mircea Daneliuc;
* The Excellence Awards to actress Dorina Lazar and the Cinemaraton TV channel;
* The UCIN President's Award went to Andrea Lacatus for "Between the Edges of the Day".
The Awards of the Association of Critics and Filmologists of the UCIN were also presented:
* The George Littera Film Book Award for the volume "Beyond the New Romanian Cinema; Romanian Culture, History and the Films of Radu Jude" by Veronica Lazar and to Andrei Gorzo;
* The "Ion Cantacuzino" Award for cinema publicist to Theodora Dora Leu;
* The Diploma for the best Romanian film of the year was awarded, ex aequo, to Tudor Giurgiu and Radu Jude for the films "Freedom" and "Don't Expect Too Much from the End of the World."
Alexandra Velniciuc and Bogdan Chenciu presented the UCIN Gala and the musical pieces were performed by the Bucharest National Opera Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Jinga.
The event was organised by the Romanian Filmmakers Union and produced by CineCultura Association.
AGERPRES Romanian National News Agency was a media partner of the event.
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