"The President's Cake" feature film, directed by Hasan Hadi, was awarded the Grand Prize at this year's edition of the Bucharest International Film Festival - BIFF 2025, during an event held at the Cinema of the Museum of the Romanian Peasant on Sunday evening.
'While the Iraqi people struggle daily for survival during Saddam Hussein's regime, a 9-year-old girl must use her ingenuity to gather the ingredients for President Saddam Hussein's birthday cake - or face the consequences: imprisonment or death," according to the film synopsis.
According to a press release sent to AGERPRES on Monday, the Best Cinematography Award at BIFF 2025 also went to "The President's Cake." The film's cinematography was signed by Tudor Panduru (director of photography) and Andu Radu (colourist editor).
'The film is an Iraqi-American co-production, the director studied in New York and has a Turkish filmmaker friend who had worked on two films with Tudor Panduru. When the director found out he knew him - knowing that Tudor also worked on Cristian Mungiu's Palme d'Or-winning film - he said he wanted to work with him. Tudor told him he usually collaborates with me and that he'd like me to do the colour grading. The producers from the US contacted me, I said yes - and we graded the film. (...) I'm very proud of how it turned out; it's perhaps the most beautiful project I've worked on, because we had a lot of creative freedom. Tudor is by far my favourite Romanian director of photography. For his age - he's only 35 - he has an understanding of visual language that many seasoned professionals around the world do not,' said Andu Radu, quoted in the press release.
The Best Screenplay Award went to the film "The Last One for the Road," written by Adriano Candiago and Francesco Sossai.
An Italian-German co-production, the film tells the story of two men over 50 who share an obsession: to go for one last drink. One evening, they meet Giulio, a shy architecture student whose perspective on the world and on love is transformed as the trio drift from bar to bar in Veneto, the film's synopsis reveals.
The BIFF 2025 jury was composed of Stere Gulea (president), Argentinian director Pablo César, actresses Ana Ciontea and Olimpia Melinte, and BBC journalist Vincent Dowd.
For the first time, the 21st edition of BIFF also featured a short film competition. The winner was "Spectacle," a Hungarian-French co-production, directed by Bálint Kenyeres.
The film explores how a Romani boy with an unusual talent becomes a television sensation overnight. As media and public attention increase, the boy is faced with the pressure and downsides of instant fame.
The short film jury was made up of directors Catrinel Danaiata, Alexandru Mavrodineanu and Valentin Hotea.
AGERPRES National News Agency was one of the media partners of the event.
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