The 19th edition of the One World Romania International Documentary & Human Rights Film Festival will take place between April 24–29 at the Peasant Museum Cinema, Elvire Popesco Cinema, the Eforie Cinematheque, and Apollo111 Cinema in Bucharest. Afterwards, many of the films will also be available to stream online, from anywhere in Romania, between April 30–May 31. Early Bird passes, which allow access to both in-person and online screenings, are now available through Eventbook.ro at the discounted price of 200 lei.
Against the backdrop of a relentless flow of news about wars, genocides, and the deepening of social and economic precarity, OWR19 invites audiences to reflect on the breaking point we are currently experiencing: democratic values are under strain, far-right discourses are becoming normalized, and the frame of acceptable public discourse is shrinking. This year’s theme, “On the Verge”, seeks to question the rationality of this path. We are asked to accept austerity—of thought, of economy, of action—as a virtue, but how can a society survive if it amputates its education, culture, social protections, and public health systems? The message is reinforced by the slogans from the festival’s visual identity, which act as a reminder to state institutions that such vital fields cost money and cannot be measured within the mercantilist logic of the profit.
This also happens to be the situation in which One World Romania finds itself this year. After the withdrawal of several funders, the festival was forced—midway through preparations—to reduce its duration to only six days from the ten originally planned. Even so, the schedule will remain packed, featuring over 40 short and feature-length films, along with several community events and screenings followed by extended open discussions that allow the same level of interaction between spectators, guests, and the festival team that audiences have come to expect.
“They say that, after 18 years, adulthood begins, and adulthood isn’t easy. Ours pushed us into organizing a short edition, struck in the middle of preparations—full, loud, with shades of sadness but also hope. Because this is just another difficult year for culture, a year when we become aware that the decency we seemed to be approaching was actually a kind of comfort we should have appreciated more. We learned long ago that serious people, the ones who make the big decisions, think that the so-called illnesses of passion, dedication, and concern for the common good will keep us here no matter what. But the truth is, there are fewer and fewer of us. Culture costs money. Education costs money. Health costs money. And their absence, in fact, costs even more,” declared Andreea Lăcătuș, the festival’s director.
Films from Cannes, Venice, and Sundance, among the first confirmed titles
Among the documentaries screened at this year’s festival is “2000 Meters to Andriivka”, the latest by Oscar-winning director Mstyslav Chernov (“20 Days in Mariupol”, 2023). Presented with the Sundance Directing Award (World Cinema, Documentary) and nominated for a BAFTA, the film reveals with haunting intimacy a failing counteroffensive from 2023, when the director and his Associated Press colleague Alex Babenko followed a Ukrainian brigade battling through a heavily fortified forest on their mission to liberate the Russian-occupied village of Andriivka.
Premiering in competition at the 2025 Venice Film Festival, “Landmarks” is the first feature-length non-fiction film by renowned filmmaker Lucrecia Martel, known for films such as “La ciénaga” (2001), “La mujer sin cabeza” (2008), and “Zama” (2017). In 2009, Javier Chocobar, leader of the Indigenous Chuchagasta community in northwest Argentina’s Tucumán Province, was shot dead after he tried to defend himself and his people from being forcibly evicted from their land by a local landowner and two former police officers. It took nine years of protests before legal proceedings were finally opened. By combining the voices and photographs from Chocobar’s life and his community with courtroom footage, Martel pays tribute to people whom history has systematically tried to erase.
In his new documentary “Orwell: 2+2=5”, filmmaker and political activist Raoul Peck (“I Am Not Your Negro”, 2016) intertwines archival footage, readings from George Orwell’s diary, and contemporary images to explore the roots of the vital and troubling concepts he revealed to the world in his dystopian masterpiece “1984”, while also offering a fresh take on how prophetic his work has become.
The right to housing and affordable housing – A warm-up screening leading to the festival
Amid increasingly intense debates regarding access to decent housing in European cities, including Romania, where over the past 20 years there appears to have been little correlation between the notion of affordable housing and the actual housing needs of Bucharest residents, One World Romania will also organize a special warm-up screening before the actual festival.
On Friday, March 20, audiences are invited from 20:00 at the Eforie Cinematheque for a screening of Roberto Beani’s “Il Pilastro”, which tackles the relationship between built space and living conditions by bringing into the spotlight a social housing complex built in the 1960s on the outskirts of Bologna. The screening will be followed by an open talk on the importance of public policies regarding social housing and urban spaces in Bucharest, with Ioana Florea from the Common Front for Housing Rights, an initiative demanding concrete solutions from authorities to strengthen housing rights, and Anca Georgiana Nica from the E-Romnja Association, a non-profit organization advocating for the respect, integrity, and dignity of Roma women.
Early Bird passes for the 19th edition of the One World Romania International Documentary & Human Rights Film Festival are available through April 1 on Eventbook. More details, as well as the full schedule, will be announced soon.
ORGANIZER: One World Romania Association
CULTURAL PROJECT CO-FUNDED BY: Administration of the National Cultural Fund (AFCN)
INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERS: The National Museum of the Romanian Peasant – Peasant Museum Cinema, Embassy of France in Romania, French Institute in Bucharest – Elvire Popesco Cinema, National Film Archive – Eforie Cinematheque, Goethe-Institut Bucharest, DACIN-SARA, Embassy of the Kingdom of Denmark in Romania, Czech Centre Bucharest, Italian Cultural Institute Bucharest
CORPORATE PARTNER: Groupama
PARTNER VENUES: Apollo111 Cinema, Lokal, Seneca Anticafe
YOUTH DAYS PARTNERS: The National Museum of the Romanian Peasant – Peasant Museum Cinema, Peasant Museum Image Archive, “I.L. Caragiale” National University of Theatre and Film, Pe Stop Association, Asociația Techsoup
FRIENDS OF OWR: UNHCR – The UN Refugee Agency Romania, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e. V. – Rule of Law Programme Southeast Europe, The National Center for Dance Bucharest (CNDB), Expert Forum (EFOR), F-Sides, Greenpeace Romania, Snoop, co/laborator film, microFILM, PRISMA FILM, Mediawise Society, Sahia Vintage, KineDok
TICKETS THROUGH: Eventbook.ro
MONITORING PARTNER: mediaTRUST Romania
MEDIA PARTNERS: RFI România, Radio România Cultural, Scena9, IQads, Revista FILM, Zile și Nopți, Școala9, Cărturești, Films in Frame, Film Menu, LiterNet, Modern Times Review, Like5.ro, Cinepub, Cinefilia, Happ.ro
THE FESTIVAL WAS ESTABLISHED IN 2008 BY: Czech Center Bucharest
Other event partners, both new and traditional, are currently in the process of confirmation.
The project does not necessarily represent the position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or how the project's results may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the funding recipient.
