Blogpost Filmfestival Cannes 2025 Roma cinema in the spotlight in southern France
by Anna Skenderoglou
From 13 to 24 May 2025, new cinema-related projects and collaborations were discussed over exclusive lunches in upbeat beach restaurants or over cold beers in private gardens in the south of France. In short, the Cannes International Film Festival was back for its 78th edition!
The road to ERIAC at the Marché du Film in Cannes 2025
What may seem like unnecessary luxury from the outside is actually the same on the inside. You are invited, offered a variety of free drinks and canapés and a pile of business cards printed on expensive paper. But instead of being in offices, it’s on terraces, on the beach, in hotels... Where there is money, it wants to be spent – ironically, because at the same time, most of the professional guests are there searching for funding to bring long-cherished projects to life or to take them to the next level, to the montée des marches (climbing the red-carpeted stairs of the Palais).
The Marché du film (film market), which has been part of the festival since 1959, is the place where the business deals behind the scenes of the red carpet happen: this is where producers, directors, distributors, funding institutions and broadcasters meet to present new projects, plan collaborations and, above all, secure financing.
One part of this market is the Village International, a sort of small village directly on the promenade next to the festival Palais. In numerous pavilions, countries from all over the world showcase their cinema as well as the institutions and individuals who support it. Coffee, gummy bears and sometimes just a shady spot to catch your breath draw in the accredited international guests and spark conversations.
Of course, you can also schedule your meetings in advance and head straight to the individual stands. That's essentially what I did when I informed Radu Sticlea an hour beforehand that I was coming. (We both quickly agreed that spontaneous meetings in Cannes are the safest and easiest, since cancellations and scheduling conflicts after a long night of partying, I mean networking, are not uncommon).
But who is Radu Sticlea and what brings him to Cannes? Radu is part of ERIAC, the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture, where he has been responsible for PR and communications since 2023. He is an artist, curator and art director with a background in art and multimedia. In his work, he is focusing increasingly on film, with a special focus on emerging artists from the ‘New East’ scene. This year, he is representing ERIAC at the Creative Europe MEDIA Desk and presenting twelve films and directors supported and accompanied by ERIAC. Between meetings, he explains how this came about over a cup of coffee:
What is ERIAC doing at the Creative Europe MEDIA stand?
ERIAC has applied to the Creative Europe MEDIA funding programme with an innovative project. The project aims to develop a label to certify Roma filmmakers who are aware of their role as representatives of their community and handle the portrayal responsibly. The goal is to counteract stereotypical narratives and actively promote to diversity within European cinema.
The application is based on a comprehensive ERIAC study of the current situation of Roma filmmakers in Europe. The result: there is no shortage of talent, but rather a lack of targeted support, mentorship and access to funding structures. The proposed label seeks to address this gap by providing a seal of quality that gives filmmakers visibility and opens up better opportunities for funding and international cooperation.
Currently in the evaluation phase, the project has already been shortlisted, which is why ERIAC is present at the Creative Europe MEDIA stand at the Marché du Film in Cannes. Here, the organisation is showcasing the project, gathering valuable feedback and building new partnerships. Plans are already in place to present the initiative at other international festivals to further raise awareness of fair and diverse representation in the film industry.
And the twelve films?
The twelve films featured in the Film Pitch Deck vividly illustrate this commitment to diversity. Whether dealing with generational trauma (“Symphony of Seasons”) or renegotiating stereotypes (“Do Magic”), the collection includes both documentaries and fictional works, spanning feature-length and short formats. Some of these projects are led entirely by Roma filmmakers, while others are co-developed and supported by non-Roma creatives. All selected works focus on Roma protagonists and stories and were chosen for their artistic quality and potential to contribute to a more inclusive cinematic landscape.
The Pitch Deck includes the following projects: “A Dangerous Journey”, “Caliu: Nothing Else, What Else Can I Do?”, “Do Magic”, “Hope. An (Almost) Gypsy Fairy Tale”, “I Matter”, “Jem”, “Romi Vajda – The Palace Revolution”, “Rozkvet”, “Songs of the Walking People”, “Soske?”, “Symphony of Seasons” and “Tales from the Wagon”.
These projects are at various stages of development and production, and will benefit from the increased visibility at Cannes and other festivals, where the print edition of the Pitch Deck will be distributed. is available online, The digital Version is available online, and producers, programme designers, funding organisations and film professionals are invited to explore these stories and get in touch with the filmmakers behind them. Most of the time, they respond! Like Sami Mustafa, who was able to tell me more about his film and his work on his last day in Cannes.
As is typical for Cannes, we met in the garden of a hotel that had been taken over for festival events (it was actually intended for a completely different purpose, but in Cannes, you don't want to spend money, so you go wherever old contacts can get you in). In a quiet corner of the hotel, Sami told me about his work and his film project.
Close-Up: Sami Mustafa
Sami is one of the Roma filmmakers featured in this year's ERIAC Pitch Deck. Born in Plementina, a small village in Kosovo, he began his documentary journey back in 2003, starting out as a film intern.Today, over two decades later, he has produced more than fifty short films and two feature films. With his own production company, Romawood, and the Rolling Film Festival, both of which he founded, he creates spaces where Roma stories can be told on their own terms. Sami now lives in Corsica with his wife and their two children.
In our conversation, he emphasises how important our place of residence is and how strongly it can influence creative work. During his ten years in Lyon, he recalls, he never truly felt integrated into the local film community as a foreign Roma filmmaker. The landscape was already dominated by established, French-trained directors with easier access to resources – and without a family history marked by war. ERIAC, he says, addresses these often-invisible barriers and pursues the goal of enabling artistic work despite structural inequalities by offering visibility, networks and financial support. There is no comparable institution in France, Sami points out.
Finally, in Corsica, the supposed obstacles ultimately became a source of inspiration for exploring his roots and the challenges attached to them through film. This eventually led him to the 78th Cannes Film Festival, where I had the chance to meet him to hear about his latest film project: “Symphony of Seasons.”
Roma on Screen: „Symphony of Seasons“
In the documentary film “Symphony of Seasons” Sami turns the camera on himself, tracing a journey back to his roots in Kosovo. Told in the form of a letter to his mother, the film unfolds in four chapters corresponding to the seasons and stages of life. The work weaves personal memories with social realities and addresses contemporary challenges such as stereotypes, homelessness and the rise of right-wing ideologies.
How did this project come to live?
Sami came up with the idea in 2022 when his mother passed away. At the time, however, he was still working on other projects. It was only when things had quietened down that he started writing. Within a week, he had sketched out the entire concept. He explains that last year, the idea was still too fragile to secure production support or funding. “No one wanted to see a film about a man writing letters to his dead mother”, he recalls. On the surface, perhaps it did not appear overtly political. But, he argues, if you look deeper, it absolutely is.
“When you talk about identity, you talk about politics – so even the identities of being a child, a parent or a spouse is political. The roles, feminism – everything becomes political.”
What will the film be like?
The film unfolds in four movements representing the seasons and four stages of life. Each chapter is infused with the elemental rhythms of life: birth, childhood, adulthood and the end of life, portraying a transformative personal journey. Using archive footage (photographs and videos) from his own childhood, he draws parallels between his own upbringing and his current life, exploring his experiences as a father.
“What is it like to be a parent? I have two kids, and my mother had seven of us. So, there is no near comparison to that. And then you know, I live on this beautiful island and everybody's happy, but you know, she lived through the Bosnian War and then had my brothers, who also went to war.”
What does it mean to be a mother or father? With his mother as the film's central figure, he tells stories of displacement, struggle and survival that still resonate today and shape Sami's way of being a father. The challenge, he suggests, is whether we can reconcile ourselves with the past without being bound by it.
What themes does the film explore?
The changing seasons not only provide a dramatic structure to the film, but also create a deeper connection to the story as a whole. Just as the seeds of a past winter produce the flowers of a coming spring, the experiences and decisions of previous generations also have an impact on the lives of the next. The film explores this invisible legacy that runs through family stories, unspoken memories and social influences, keyword generational trauma.
Sami's work not only shows ways of dealing with this burden (through searching family archives and interviewing family members), but is itself one of these ways (artistic processing). Along the way, traumatic events are brought into sharper focus. The second chapter, centered on childhood and youth, addresses the demonstrations in which Sami took part and police violence that has shaped him to this day. In the third chapter, he lets his brother speak, who had not talked much about the war before. Through these personal stories and archive materials, the film aims to reflect on the situation in Kosovo and the consequences of the war for families and their descendants.
„There is hope. There is a new beginning. Generations continue.”
Through Sami's descriptions, “Symphony of Seasons” feels like an intimate conversation – with himself, with the past and with the future. It is a symphony that reaches beyond the director's personal experiences to resonate with future generations and with people from other backgrounds who are navigating questions of identity. Filming is scheduled for June and July 2025. If all goes well, we can expect the film next year.
Anna Skenderoglou
Anna Skenderoglou combines a background in French cultural and languages studies with philosophy at Heidelberg University and a strong focus on film and media. Growing up bilingual and speaking five languages has given her a strong awareness of cultural diversity and the subtle role language plays in shaping perception. Through her experience as a film curator at the Nice Short Film Festival, she explores the challenges of programming across linguistic and cultural boundaries. With a particular interest in how original language and translation affect film perception, she is continuing her academic path in an international master’s program.