The weekend seems to have been torn from a beautiful dream in Sibiu, where hundreds of people had a unique experience: floating in boats, under the light of the moon, they watched movies projected on a huge screen located between windmills in the middle of the woods. Sibiu. The AFF Warm-Up event was offered to the public by the organizers of the Astra Film Festival, as well as an invitation to the International Documentary Film Festival, which will take place in Sibiu in cinemas and online from 9 to 16 October 2022. Some films, most of which will be seen at #AFF2022 for the premiere in Romania, will later be available online for audiences from all over the country.

Wonderful autumn evenings were enjoyed by those who came to the Astra Museum in Sibiu over the weekend. Guests were greeted by the organizers of the Astra Film Festival with hot tea served in cups with suggestive messages from non-fiction films “Who made you?”. and “River”. To watch these films, the public boarded boats or jet skis and floated across the water of the lake to a screen located next to the reed beds between the windmills. There, on the shore, at Casa Podarului, there were still several hundred spectators who did not get tickets for the boats.

On the first night, the audience of the floating cinema faced simple and direct questions about the future in which humans will coexist with artificial intelligence. The deepest and most philosophical moments of “Who made you?” (b. Härmä Iiris, Finland) had amazing dialogues between children and robots. On the second evening, viewers of the event film “The River” (directed by Jennifer Peedom and Joseph Nizet, Australia, USA) experienced something extraordinary: the rivers on the screen seemed to flow into the water of the lake in the middle of the Sibiu forest and up into the starry sky, carrying with them unspoken thoughts people passionate about the experiences they’ve had.

• “I had heard about boat shows on the lake, and I really wanted to be a part of something like that. I came from Bucharest specifically for this,” testified a woman on the alley near the pier.
• “I rowed at night, among the stars and reeds, among the moments of the past, present, and future,” said a young woman who was deeply moved by this experience.
• “We felt the film trying to stay still. But our boat moved smoothly, carried by the thin currents of the lake. As in life,” said an elegantly dressed gentleman after getting off the boat.

“It is exciting and exciting to sail in boats under the moonlight, to be able to watch the premiere of a film in Romania on a huge screen between the windmills. We are waiting for our viewers this weekend, all non-fiction film lovers, at the Astra Film Festival, where we have prepared more than 200 cultural events,” said Dumitru Budrala, Astra Film Festival’s founding director.

The AFF Warm-Up also included a very interesting discussion between documentary film professionals and teenagers from Sibiu, with which the organizers of the Astra Film Festival announce the return to the festival calendar, showing and special events in the cinema halls and full domes the Astra Film Junior program, the most popular film education project of documentary cinema in Romania.

About Astra Film Festival

Astra Film Festival Sibiu, launched in 1993 as an innovative project, is one of the most important non-fiction film festivals in Europe and has been included by the European Film Academy in the list of festivals entitled to make direct nominations for the European Film Awards.

Astra Film Festival is held under the high patronage of the President of Romania and organized by Astra Film, CNM Astra and Astra Film Foundation with the support of the Sibiu County Council, the Ministry of Culture, the National Center of Cinematography, the Consulate of the Federal Republic of Germany in Sibiu and the Union of Cinematographers. The event is co-financed by the City Council of Sibiu through the City Hall of Sibiu and the European Union through the Creative Europe program.