Each year the ROMANIAN FILM FESTIVAL IN LONDON offers, through the good offices of its organiser PROFUSION INTERNATIONAL, an award to students drawn from the Romanian diaspora in the United Kingdom. The qualifications are simple. The recipient should, permanently or temporarily, be resident in Britain, and he or she should be a student of the visual arts, especially in the field of cinema. Our practice is to leave applications open as long as possible, so there is still time to apply for the film festival in November 2016. A brief CV and a brief statement backing up your claim to the scholarship is all that is required. All communications should be addressed to Ms R Mitrica, Director, PROFUSION – mail@profusion.org.uk

THE PROFUSION SCHOLARSHIP SCHEME
The Romanian Film Festival in London announced the inaugural annual Profusion scholarship scheme.

The aim of the Profusion scholarship is to contribute to the development of young film makers with a Romanian background, and it was launched at a special event during the Festival, in the presence of the first recipient: the young Romanian cinematographer Simona Susnea.

The 2013 scholarship, with the value of GBP 1,500, consisted of:
- a stay of one week in London, during The Romanian Film Festival in London, and
- a GBP500 contribution towards Simona Susnea’s tuition fees for the National Film and Television School in London (NFTS), where she is currently enrolled as an MA student.
The funds guaranteed by the scholarship covered the cost of travel Bucharest-London-Bucharest, local transport in London, hotel accommodation for one week, per diem, tickets for screenings.

The scheme also offered assistance in the fields of fund raising, supervision and mentoring. In 2014 the Profusion scholarship scheme intends to promote films based on the diasporic experience and to encourage the development of young film makers growing up in the diaspora.

The 2015 winner is Cristian Havrincea, a documentary filmmaker and camera journalist who graduated MA Screen Documentary from Goldsmiths College (2013) and BA (Hons) Media Studies from the University of West London (2012). He has recently directed and produced Nobody’s People, a short documentary which represents the Park Lane homeless phenomenon outside of the usual stereotypes. As a UK resident for more than a decade, Cristian’s focus mainly has depicted the challenges faced by those who were trying to build a new life away from their home countries. Through his work in film and for different media outlets from around the world, Cristian has always been a great promoter of Romanian values.