Guests
Bogdan George Apetri
Director & Associate Professor, Columbia University
A former lawyer in Romania, Bogdan George Apetri moved to New York where he graduated from Columbia University's Film Program with an MFA degree in Film Directing. His student films screened and won awards at prominent short film festivals across the world. He was a National Finalist at the Student Academy Awards in 2006.
In 2010, he directed and wrote the feature film Periferic (Outbound). The film won numerous international awards (Thessaloniki, Warsaw, Viennale) including the FIPRESCI Award (The International Federation of Film Critics Award) twice. It was picked up by MK2 in France.
In 2020 he directed his second feature film, Neidentificat (Unidentified). Awarded a special Jury Prize in Warsaw, it went on to gather a FIPRESCI. Award at the TIFF Transylvania International Film Festival and the Grand at the Anonimul Film Festival in Romania.
In 2021 he released his third feature film, Miracol (Miracle). It premiered at the Venice International Film Festival and was picked up by the prestigious Memento International Sales film company, winning many awards.
He will direct his fourth feature film in 2023
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He is Associate Professor at Columbia University.
Theodor Ionita
Director
Born in Iași, Romania, Theodor Ioniță started studying art history from a very young age. In 2018 he attended UNATC I. L. Caragiale in
Bucharest where he completed several short films as a screenwriter and director, including „In a family”
(2020), „Malice Aforethought” (2021), „Mihail and Achim” (2021), „My sister and I” (2022). As an emerging film director working in Bucharest, Theodor is starting to recieve recognition at festivals like Sarajevo Film Festival, Transilvania International Film Festival, Gopo Film Awards, Anonimul International Film Festival, where he won „Ovidiu Bose PaÈ™tină” award for short film in 2021.
Steven Kovacs
Professor, San Francisco State University
Professor, Directing, European & Latin American Cinema, Producing and Writing, San Francisco State Univ. Steven Kovacs has written on art, photography, Surrealism, Latin American and Eastern European film, particularly on the intersection of politics and the arts.
He is the author of poetry, fiction, and translations. He has written, produced, and directed feature films (“ON THE LINE”, “’68”, “ANGEL BLUE”) and received an Academy Award Nomination for the documentary “Arthur and Lillie”.
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Cosana Eram
Associate Professor University of the Pacific
Cosana Eram is Associate Professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at University of the Pacific, California. She obtained a PhD in French and Humanities at Stanford University (2010) and a doctorate magna cum laude in Philology at the University of Bucharest, Romania (2003).
With a primary research focus on international avant-garde and modernism, she has a book in Romanian on the literary canon and has published on world literature, art, film, and cultural studies.
Christopher Coppola
Director
