ANONIMUL in 10 steps and 20 years

Now in its 19th year, the ANONIMUL International Film Festival is one of the local examples of how an idea, a bit of luck, hard work and determination can change a place in a way that is consistent with the reality already on the ground, without altering it.
The idea. A "movie village", a celebration for filmmakers, but also for artists in other fields, just starting out.
Irrepressibly enchanted by the beauty of nature here, Sorin Marin, president of the ANONIMUL Foundation, the initiator of the festival, wanted to create a space in Sfântu Gheorghe where artists from different fields can meet and exchange ideas, find a place where they can be visible and get inspiration for future projects.
The project. A complex that will include, in addition to accommodation (a small boutique hotel, wooden cottages and a camping area), a three-screen indoor cinema and an outdoor one that can accommodate more than 3,000 people.
The plans for the project, carefully supervised by Sorin Marin (who came up with the idea of the Green Village Resort and Green Dolphin Camping), were drawn up by an architectural firm in Brasov and later completed by one in Tulcea. Everything was designed to complement the charm of the place.
The realization. The land chosen was marshy, tons of stone were needed to create the base for the construction. The work was done in wood and reed to respect the lines of the site, of the landscape already existing in the Danube Delta, the complex integrating gracefully into the village that it now complements in a natural, natural way. From the very beginning it was intended to disturb the environment as little as possible, which is why it was built only on the land that was available at the time, adding to the already existing structure.
The relationship with the locals. It was more difficult at first - anything new is a bit scary at first - but as they saw the project moving forward, they began to be more sympathetic to those who were going to help transform their community. Many of the locals worked to build the complex and were subsequently hired, and some continue to work in the complex today.
Festival. From a breathtaking fishing spot to a movie village took an idea and a lot of persistence. As the project became a reality in Sfântu Gheorghe, the team managing it began to shape the idea of the ANONIMUL International Independent Film Festival. It started with a round-the-world tour of 80 film festivals that the team made. Everywhere they debated ideas and told the world about the festival to be born in Sfântu Gheorghe. The last stop was in Romania, in the Danube Delta, in 2004, for the opening of the festival's first edition.
The journey. From the first edition, which started just a few weeks after the works on the complex were finished and gathered 600-700 people, the festival has grown year by year, bringing new tourists, filmmakers, future lovers of the Delta, carrying with it the need for development, for evolution of the place. If you stroll through the narrow streets of the village, you can observe the history of the place, which is marked by an increase in financial power. But the traces are natural - every place needs to grow, and Sfântu Gheorghe has done it organically, naturally, peacefully. Today, thousands of spectators watch the ANONIMUL programs every year, curated by Ludmila Cvicova (feature film competition), Ionuț Mareș (Romanian and international short film competitions) and Miruna Berescu, the festival director.
Community. The festival team and its audience are now part of the Sfântu Gheorghe community. It's as if numerous relatives come to visit their loved ones in the second week of August and enjoy each other, the movies, the guests, the talks in shorts and flip-flops, about movies, about life, about beauty. The festival traditionally starts already with the program offered by the children's choir and the village ladies' choir, an unmissable moment, without which the festival would not be what it is: part of the lives of the locals, the audience (some have been coming constantly since the first editions) and the guests, Romanian or international, united by their passion for film in all its forms, all enchanted by the sunsets. "I fell in love with the place, the light is different there. I remember coming home thinking that I had never seen that kind of sunset before," said Miruna Berescu.
Team. Miruna was part of the festival team from the very beginning - "I first stayed in a man's house, there weren't many tourists, and those who were stayed in people's houses. There was one shop and one pub." Things slowly grew from there. The festival team is still small, but the village has grown and is ready to welcome visitors outside the festival.
Magic. On the village roads you see sunsets that end days full of movies and discussions, people come from the beach with one of the finest sands in Romania and hurry, among the cows, to get to the screenings in the Camping on time. There's a lot of laughter, it's one of the places I've counted among the most hugs, they stay at the movie until after three in the night and then go to the beach again to count shooting stars (this time of year it's the Perseids) or take a walk to where the Danube flows into the Black Sea. It's all done together, and next year we celebrate 20 years of ANONYMOUS, a human life together.