Florin Serban’s feature film debut walked off with seven trophies out of 13 nominations, including best film and best director.
Florin Serban won the best director award, for “If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle”, in the fifth edition of the Gopo gala, which took place Monday evening, at Bucharest’s Crystal Palace Ballrooms. This is the first Gopo award, as well as the first nomination, in Florin Serban’s career.
After graduating the National University of Theatrical and Cinematographic Art (UNATC) in Bucharest, Serban won a scholarship at the Columbia University’s Faculty of Film (NYC) and enrolled in the faculty’s Film Directing Master’s programme. “If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle” was the first film directed by him after returning to Romania. The film premiered at the 2010 edition of the Berlin Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear – the Grand Prize of the Jury and the “Alfred Bauer” Award for innovative filmmaking.
Another feature film debut, “Morgen”, by Marian Crisan, which collected 11 nominations, went home empty-handed, while “Tuesday, after Christmas”, by Radu Muntean, which had ten nominations, won only one award. “Kino Caravan”, directed by Titus Muntean, won five Gopo awards, and “The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu”, by Andrei Ujica, won two awards, including the best documentary. The gala was broadcasted live, with exclusive rights, by Pro Cinema. It could also be watched online, on www.premiilegopo.ro and www.procinema.ro, as well as on the largest media façade in Romania, Cocor Media Channel, in downtown Bucharest.
Victor Rebengiuc won the award for the best actor in a leading role, for “Medal of Honour”, while Mirela Oprisor won the best actress award, for her starring role in “Tuesday, after Christmas”. The best actor in a supporting role award went to Bogdan Dumitrache, for “Portrait of the Fighter as a Young Man”, while Clara Voda won the best supporting actress award, for her performance in “If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle”. An honorary award was bestowed to the actor Ion Besoiu, who recently turned 80. Another multi-awarded production was “Kino Caravan”, directed by Titus Muntean, which collected five Gopo awards, for the best original score (Vasile Sirli), scenography (Cristian Niculescu), costume design (Viorica Petrovici), and the best cinematography award, granted by the Romanian Society of Cinematographers, to Dragan Vivi Vasile. The special award for supporting Romanian cinema went, this year, to the Romanian Cultural Institute.
The “B.D.” series were awarded the title of the most popular Romanian film broadcast by Pro Cinema in 2010. As there was no one present from the cast or crew to pick up the award, Cristian Tudor Popescu, who was handing the trophy, said, jokingly, he would offer it to the “bodyguards” who had prevented him from parking his car in the space allotted to the guests.
