The film tells the story of a child who finds a sick bird in the street and tries to convince his parents to take it home. Here is how the jury explained their choice: “A perfectly paced miniature, a chamber piece inside a Romanian tower block. Funny, heartfelt, with a wonderful rhythm.” The winner also gets a scholarship from the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service), which includes three months of study in Berlin within the framework of the Artists-in-Berlin programme as well as financial support over this period of time. Adrian Sitaru is a director, producer, script writer and actor at the same time.

This is not the first prize grabbed by Sitaru. In 2007, he won the “Gold Leopard” in the Locarno Film Festival (Switzerland) with Waves” and in 2008 his first feature film “ Sports Fishing” grabbed several prizes in Film Festivals in Thessalonike (Greece), Estoril ( Portugal) and Palm Springs (the US). Running in the “Berlinale Shorts” section this year was also the Romanian film, “Derby”, directed by Paul Negoescu.

At this edition of the Berlinale, 10 European young actors, among whom Romanian Dragos Bucur have been awarded the Shooting Stars title. The Romanian actor has been praised for the “intensity and precision” with which he creates the roles he plays. The title comes as an official recognition of his talent and places him into the cultural and economic network of international cinematography. During the festival, the Shooting Stars actors have the opportunity to meet casting directors, producers, and agents from around the world. The Shooting Stars title was first granted 13 years ago and Dragos Bucur is the third Romanian actor to receive it, after Maria Popistasu (2007) and Anamaria Marinca (2008).

Romania is also represented in the competition for the Golden Bear by Florin Serban’s feature film “If I want to whistle, I whistle”. Films by world famous directors like Roman Polanski and Martin Scorsese are running in the competition this year. Serban’s film enjoys favorable reviews both in the German media and on the blogs of “The Wall Street Journal” and “The Guardian”. It is for the second time in a row that a Romanian film is selected for the official competition of the Berlinale.

And it is for the first time that an exclusively Romanian made film runs in the competition since 1993, when Mircea Daneliuc participated in the competition with “The Conjugal Bed”, in 1993. Last year, “Katalin Varga” a Romanian-British-Hungarian co-production, directed by Peter Strickland got the Silver bear for sound.