Concept

Created under the patronage of the National University of Theatre and Film "I.L. Caragiale" and the National University of Arts Bucharest, with the support of the Ministry of Culture of Romania and the Romanian National Film Center, BUCHAREST INTERNATIONAL EXPERIMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL BIEFF has as its main focus the experimental in cinema and experimental visual art.

Founded by film director, screenwriter and university professor Copel Moscu and Golden Bear winning director Adina Pintilie, BIEFF is the first showcase of avant-garde cinema and visual art in Romania, a non-commercial event with educational purpose, aimed at bringing to the audience highly innovative films and filmmakers with strong personal views on contemporary reality, which also daringly explore the boundaries of cinematic language. A cinema of total creative freedom and lack of compromise.

Starting with 2012, PETER GREENAWAY has become the HONORARY PRESIDENT of the Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival BIEFF, generously joining us in our educational initiative.

We believe BIEFF is a highly necessary event, its main goal being to broaden perception, to open a whole new artistic territory, both for the general and the specialized audience, particularly for film and visual art students.

Therefore we present films which are lessons in cinema, emblematic pieces, eye-openers with regard to the unlimited possibilities offered by the cinematic medium, the ways to transcend any possible borders between fiction, documentary and visual art, the transgression of boundaries on every level ranging from concept, structure, rhythm, to the construction of the shot.

The centerpiece of the programme of films that BIEFF proposes is its INTERNATIONAL EXPERIMENTAL SHORT FILM COMPETITION, consisting of some of the most intriguing and innovative visual experiments from the past year, titles awarded and screened in prestigious festivals, museums and galleries all over the world, such as Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Rotterdam, Locarno, Oberhausen, Toronto, etc.

In 2020, the competition comprises 39 films directed by artists from 24 countries, grouped into 7 theme programmes that invite the audience to reflect on topics that are of relevance to the current social and political context, but also to imagine alternative scenarios about the present and the future.

As for each of our editions, we are honored to welcome in our International Competition Jury prestigious films and visual arts professionals such as: MAHA MAAMOUN – artist and curator, representative of BERLINALE Forum Expanded; CHARLOTTE SERRAND – filmmaker and curator, representative of QUINZAINE DES RÈALISATEURS; IRINA TROCAN – film critic and lecturer at the Film Faculty of the National University of Theatre and Film "I.L. Caragiale" in Bucharest.

Furthermore, during its ten years of existence BIEFF was honored to collaborate with some of the major international film festivals and institutions in the area of avant-garde cinema and visual art, recognized worldwide for their consistent creative support of innovative, radical filmmaking and visual art: QUINZAINE DES RÉALISATEURS – Cannes Film Festival, BERLINALE Forum Expanded – Berlin International Film Festival, ARSENAL Institute for Film and Video Art, International Film Festival ROTTERDAM, SARAJEVO Film Festival, Le FRESNOY – Studio National des Arts Contemporains, SIXPACKFILM Austria and EYE Film Institute Netherlands, who bring to Bucharest a selection of highly innovative multi-awarded films from their selections each year, and with whom continue our fruitful collaborations for this anniversary edition of our festival.