Tudor Giurgiu: Thing that matters most at TIFF is we managed to change some destinies

For Tudor Giurgiu, the President of the Transylvania International Film Festival, the most important thing that TIFF managed in the past twenty years is that it changed "some destinies". "Each time somebody asks us which are the important things done by TIFF in 20 years, what meetings impress you most, for me, the thing that actually counts the most relates to the way in which we managed in 20 years to change some destinies. We are speaking of children brought by parents to the screening of the EducaTIFF, children who discovered cinema with TIFF," said Giurgiu, at the opening of the Media and Cinematography Education Conference. He told that, upon opening the 20th edition of the Festival in Cluj-Napoca, she met a woman who was pregnant at the first edition of TIFF. "That child today is a film student, pulling after him other volunteers, other children and that for me is fantastic," said the TIFF President. Giurgiu also referenced the objective of the conference taking place on Monday, recalling about the desire to introduce cinema education in schools. "After the pandemic, it's even more important to realize that images come to children in a completely chaotic manner. We are bombarded by images, it's not only a matter of history, but a matter of civic rights, it's a matter of giving children critical spirit," said, in her turn, the Ambassador of France, Laurence Auer, present at the conference. She confessed that this is the edition where as an ambassador she discovered TIFF "as if it were Ali Baba's Cave." "After a year and a half, the Festival in Cannes just took place in France and I see here, in Cluj, so many young people interested in cinema. I believe this festival may create a very important program for youth," added the French Ambassador.AGERPRES(RO - author: Oana Ghita, editor: Georgiana Tanasescu; EN - author: Razvan-Adrian Pandea, editor: Maria Voican)