All activities / Film Festivals / Cluj-Napoca
Film Festivals in Cluj-Napoca
Transylvania's student capital, staging two of Europe's biggest festivals a month apart: UNTOLD in the arena, Electric Castle at a baroque ruin.
Run by Asociatia pentru Promovarea Filmului Romanesc, with published dates and a real program.
Dates & details verified against: Official event site ↗
Why here
The Transilvania International Film Festival is Romania's largest film event and the launchpad of the Romanian New Wave, the movement that took Cannes by storm in the 2000s and put Romanian cinema on the world map. Each mid-June, TIFF screens two-hundred-plus films from some fifty countries across Cluj's cinemas, squares, and castles, open-air premieres included, with English subtitles standard and badges priced for students rather than executives. Its twenty-fifth anniversary edition in 2026 confirmed what the industry already knew: for discovering European cinema before the rest of the festival circuit does, this is the room.
Best months
Annual, roughly ten days in mid-June: the 2026 edition ran June 12-21, with mid-June 2027 expected. Badges and single tickets are accessible; open-air venues fill early on premiere nights. June in Cluj is warm and long-lit.
Getting there & around
Fly to Cluj directly; venues cluster in the walkable center with shuttles to the castle screenings. Book festival-week rooms ahead, though the squeeze is gentler than UNTOLD's.
Skill levels: beginner
Schools & guides (1)
Transilvania International Film Festival
OrganizerRomania's largest film festival and the Romanian New Wave's launchpad, run by the Romanian Film Promotion association each mid-June since 2002.