More than 50 films and special events will be presented over five days at the 13th edition of Ceau, Cinema!, taking place from 15th to 19th July in Timișoara.
Screenings will be held primarily at Cinema Studio, Cinema Timiș, Cinema Victoria and Cinema Johnny. The full programme and tickets are available on the our website and the cinemas’ websites.
The festival will also offer a series of events and free-access screenings during its open-air cinema picnics in Regina Maria Park, as well as at Faber and the Kuncz Social Services Complex.
This year’s theme, “Unleashed Cinema”, celebrates bold, unconventional and provocative filmmaking. The festival poster was created by Timișoara-based illustrator Andreea Dumuța.
The festival opens on Wednesday at 6:30 pm at Cinema Timiș with Adventure (2025), in the presence of acclaimed French actress and filmmaker Sophie Letourneur, the special guest of this year’s edition. Ceau, Cinema! will present her with an honorary award and dedicate a four-film retrospective, organised in partnership with the French Institute.
The festival will also pay tribute to renowned Polish filmmaker Jerzy Skolimowski with a retrospective of four films from the early years of his career, organised in collaboration with the Polish Institute in Bucharest.
As every year, the international competition presents six acclaimed new European films, all premiering in Timișoara. The 2026 jury comprises filmmaker Xandra Popescu, actress Ana Dumitrașcu and film critic Andrei Rus. The “Răzvan Georgescu” Ceau, Cinema! Award, worth €1,000, and the Audience Award, worth €500, are both sponsored by Groupama Insurances.
The programme also features the Timișoara premieres of two Romanian films—The Maid’s Diary (Jurnalul unei cameriste, 2026) by Radu Jude and Blindsight (Piatră foarfecă hârtie, 2025) by Adrian Sitaru—alongside a selection of three restored 4K classics by Michael Powell, Pedro Almodóvar and Nicolas Winding Refn, a line-up of recent award-winning films from festivals including Berlin, Cannes and Venice, and two screenings of films from Romania’s Banat region presented by their creative teams.
Among this year’s special events are a programme of three experimental short films curated by filmmaker Xandra Popescu; a screening of TikTok videos selected and introduced by critic Andrei Rus; two screenings organised in partnership with the feminist film collective F-SIDES and curated by students Ruxandra Tripa and Carla Pantilie; and the Timișoara premiere of a documentary by Andrei Ujică and Harun Farocki, based on an early-1990s German television programme about the Romanian Revolution.
Internationally acclaimed, but Timisoara-born, filmmaker Andrei Ujică will attend the festival to present the documentary and launch his recently published autobiographical interview book, Meridian. Andrei Ujică on Andrei Ujică: Conversations with Claudia Nedelcu Duca, together with film critics Adina Baya and Victor Morozov.
Free outdoor screenings return this year in the form of cinema picnics in Regina Maria Park, organised in partnership with the Ceva de Spus Association. The programme includes premiere screenings such as the restored version of Nae Caranfil’s Dolce far niente (1998), alongside some of the biggest audience favourites of the past year. The festival programme has been curated by artistic director Ionuț Mareș.
Expanded this year, Ceau, Junior!, the festival’s section dedicated to children and families, is curated and coordinated by festival manager Elisabeta Varga-Piatek. Screenings will take place at Cinema Victoria and Faber, as well as, for the first time, at Cinema Johnny, which opened late last year, and outdoors in Regina Maria Park. For the second consecutive year, Ceau, Cinema! will also bring films to the Kuncz Social Services Complex through its partnership with the Timișoara Municipal Directorate for Social Assistance.
The programme includes the eagerly awaited Romanian feature Atlas of the Universe (2026), presented in the presence of director Paul Negoescu and cinematographer Ana Drăghici; a focus on Finnish children’s films; animated shorts from Animest and the Turku Animation School (Finland); and two internationally acclaimed animated features presented in accessible versions for audiences with visual and hearing impairments.
The international partner of this year’s edition is the Oulu International Children’s and Youth Film Festival (Finland), founded in 1982. The festival will be represented in Timișoara by organisers Marja Seppänen and Mika Anttolainen.
The Ceau, Junior! section is supported by E.ON Energie România.
The 13th edition also includes the Ceau, Cineva! workshop for young participants, dedicated this year to cinematography and led by Ana Drăghici, as well as the festival’s traditional exhibition at the Pygmalion Gallery of the House of Arts. Featuring dozens of photographs inspired by cinema and festival promotional spots created by young artists from across Romania, the exhibition will remain open throughout July.
More information is available on our website and on the festival’s Facebook and Instagram pages.
Ceau, Cinema! is a festival dedicated to European cinema, organised by the Pelicula Culturală Association.
Funded by: The Municipality of Timișoara through the Project Center
Additional funding: National Center of Cinematography (CNC)
Sponsors: Groupama Asigurări, E.ON Energie Romania
International partners: Oulu International Children’s and Youth Film Festival; Turku University of Applied Sciences (Finland)
Partners: Cinema Studio, Cinema Timiș, Cinema Victoria, Cinema Johnny, Animest, French Institute, Polish Institute Bucharest, Italian Cultural Institute in Bucharest, German Cultural Centre Timișoara, Liszt Institute – Hungarian Cultural Centre Bucharest, Austrian Cultural Forum Bucharest, Embassy of Spain, Cervantes Institute Bucharest, Czech Centre Bucharest, Timișoara Municipal Directorate for Social Assistance, House of Arts – Timiș County Directorate for Culture.
Supported by: Lipoplast, Porsche Timișoara, Hotel Savoy, Hotel Do Stil Boutique, Little Hanoi, Vinto, La Trattoria Cucina Moderna, Ovride, Aramic Winery, Prospero, Timișoara Public Transport Company, Cărturești Timișoara, Ceva de Spus Association, Faber, Ambasada, F-SIDES, Timișoara la Cutie, Marele Ecran Association, Eventbook, Claudia Roșu.
Media partners: Visit Timișoara, Kinostetic, Films in Frame, West City Radio, CineFan, Tributary Stu, În Bine.