Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca is a vibrant multicultural city, housing a dense network of cultural institutions, easily accessible to diverse audiences. The city has a dynamic cultural sector, excelling in infrastructure, local cultural investment, specialized human resources, cultural consumption and the presence of creative industries, which is a strategic development factor supported by the City Council. The city aims to develop a functional and inclusive urban landscape based on cultural assets, working towards a more inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable city. Cluj-Napoca has a long-standing relationship with film and the audiovisual sector, with film studios emerging at the beginning of the 20th century, thanks to film director Jenő Janovics. The city is the home of Romania’s leading film event, the Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF), now at its 20th edition, one of the world’s top 40 film festivals. Cluj-Napoca is the city with the densest film network nationally. The tradition of cinema-going is vibrant, as attendance figures of cinemas show, as well as TIFF record audiences, attracting over 130,000 people per edition. The city is committed to further capitalizing on its potential in film and rethinking its role in local communities and their development. This includes the articulation of local cinematography with complementary fields in order to attract businesses and services, create jobs, and increase the citizen’s quality of life and access to culture.
As a Creative City of Film, the following steps will be important:
- Supporting culture and creativity as key factors towards sustainable development and citizens’ welfare;
- Facilitating access to cultural products and services - especially film, on an everyday basis;
- Engaging partners from various fields such as the municipality, universities, private sector and NGOs, into interdisciplinary cooperation to increase the quality of the cultural offer;
- Facilitating collaboration with cities within the UCCN, developing a programme for film and the audiovisual sector, fostering the exchange of best practices and mutual enrichment;
- Encouraging the development of film education, especially towards young audiences; and
- Developing academic research in the field of film and audiovisual production, benefitting the UCCN community.