Professors
Assistant Professor László CSIBI, PhD
László CSIBI, PhD
Assistant Professor
László Csibi studied Film and Media at the Faculty of Theatre and Television at the Babeş-Bolyai University. He is the director and producer of several documentary films (Nussbaum 95736; Sweet Transylvania, Here We Were) and musical videos which were screened and awarded at national and international film festivals. He received his PhD degree from the Babeş-Bolyai University for his thesis called “Count Sámuel Teleki’s Expedition in Africa: The Heritage of Documents and Photographs”. Besides investigating Count Teleki’s expeditions in Africa, László Csibi’s research and publications focus on the history of photography and the contemporary oral history of Transylvania.
He is an experienced television reporter, video editor, video artist and sound engineer (TVR Cluj, Digi24 TV Cluj-Napoca).
He is the founder and head of Kolozsvár Filmmaking Workshops, an organization which helps Cluj-based high–school students to develop their photo and filmmaking skills.
He also works as an associate Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences (FSPAC).
Courses: Photography (1), Photography (2), Basics of Film and TV Image, Documentary Film Basics.
Link CV: http://thesilentgroup.com/cv/csibi_laszlo.pdf
Office hours: Tuesday 11-12, room 31, Kogălniceanu 4.
PROFESSORS
Professor, M. Tóth Géza, PhD
Géza M. TÓTH, PhD
Professor in Animation Studies
Géza M. Tóth is an Oscar-nominated Hungarian filmmaker and founder and head of KEDD Animation Studio. He is the former rector of the University of Theater and Film Arts in Budapest and currently lectures at UBB. Géza Tóth is also a member of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
He works in different artistic fields which include theatre productions, animation, educational films, television commercials and illustrations.
As a filmmaker, he directed several successful short films which participated at more than two hundred prestigious film festivals. These works – inter alia – include Icar (Berlin International Film Festival), as well as Pied Piper (1992) which was selected for the Annecy Film Festival’s Cristal Prize. His computer-animated short film Maestro (2005) was nominated for the Best animated short film Academy Award.
Courses: Special Effects, Animation Technics, Film Director-Film Actor Collaboration (MA), Short Film Directing (MA).
Office hours:
Associate Professor, FELMÉRI Cecilia, PhD
FELMÉRI Cecilia, PhD.
Associate Professor
cecilia.felmeri@ubbcluj.ro
After graduating at Babes-Bolyai University Law Studies, she graduated at Sapientia University in Cluj Napoca in Film Directing. Master studies at I.L. Caragiale National Film University in Bucharest in Film Directing and PHD diploma at Babes-Bolyai University. She has been faculty member in the Film, photography and media department of Sapientia University, Cluj Napoca between 2008-2023. She is the co-founder and vice president of Hungarian Film Society of Transilvania organization.
Her first feature film Spiral (2020) was premiered at Warsaw International Film Festival, where it won the Special Prize of the Jury. It was showed in more than twenty A-category and other important film festivals, won the Main Prize in Lima, Peru, Special Prize of the Jury in Thessaloniki IFF, it won the Best Feature Film Prize at Kovács László – Zsigmond Vilmos Cinematoghrapy Competition, The Hungarian Critics Prize for Best Cinematography, the Los Angeles Hungarian Film Festival Best Cinematography Prize. It was in cinemas in Hungary and Romania, and in present it is on Netflix in Hungary and Romania.
Her previous shorts, The Pill of Happiness (short fiction, 2012), Infinite minutes (short fiction, 2011), Mathias, Mathias (animated documentary, 2010), Cuckoo (short fiction, 2008), etc. were in competition of A list film festivals, and many important international festivals, like Locarno IFF, AFI (American Film Institute) Fest, Warsaw IFF, Mar del Plata IFF, DokLeipzig, Transilvania IFF, etc. She won more than 30 prizes with her shorts, e.g. Canal + Prize at Cinemed, Best Romanian Film at Animest, Best Hungarian Short Film at Cinefest, Most Promising Young Talent at Hungarian Filmweek, Special Prize of the Jury at Transilvania IFF, etc. Her films were nominated for more times for the Romanian Film Prizes (Gopo).
Associate Professor, VIRGINÁS Andrea, PhD
VIRGINÁS Andrea, PhD.
Associate Professor
andrea.virginas@ubbcluj.ro
(BA in Humanities, Hungarian and English Studies – BBU, MA in Cultural and Literary Theory – BBU, MA in Gender Studies – CEU & New York State University, PhD in Literary and Cultural Studies – Debrecen University, Habilitation in Cinematography and Media in process – BBU) has been a faculty member in the Media Department of Sapientia University Cluj-Napoca between 2003 – 2023, and from 2023 she is an associate professor in the Faculty of Theatre and Film at Babeș-Bolyai University. Research interests: cultural studies, film studies, media studies, specifically genres, stereotypes, narrative, medial and memory structures. Postdoctoral individual research project: The Role of Generic Panels in European Small Cinemas (CNCS-UEFISCDI –Romanian Ministry of Education, 2013–2015). Between 2021 and 2024 she is Bolyai János Research Fellow of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences with the project Processing cultural Traumas in Contemporary European Cinemas: a Possible Model of Mediatized Collective Memory-work; and leader of the group research TE Cultural Traumas in European Small National Cinemas (Romanian Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitization, CNCS-UEFSICDI); between 2023 and 2027 she is national researcher in the project AGE-C: Ageing and Gender in European Cinema (Volkswagen Stiftung). Latest volumes: Virginás Andrea (ed.): Cultural Studies Approaches in the Study of Eastern European Cinema: Spaces, Bodies, Memories. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016; Film Genres in Hungarian and Romanian Cinema: History, Theory, Reception. Lanham, Boulder, New York, London: Lexington Books, 2021.
Office hours: Tuesday 12-13 – Janovics Center, Faculty Bg. (prior email request needed)
Associate Professor, Balázs ZÁGONI, PhD
Balázs ZÁGONI, DLA
Associate Professor
Balázs Zágoni specializes in screenwriting, creative writing and film history. He is also a writer and film director.
He received his Doctor of Liberal Arts Degree from the University of Film and Theatre Budapest with a thesis on the comparative study of contemporary European and Hollywood screenwriting.
He was one of the founders of Filmtett, a Cluj-based film journal/portal and NGO for film culture and education, as well the Filmtett Workshop and the Hungarian Film Festival of Cluj. He wrote and directed several documentaries, including Bishop’s Breakfast (A püspök reggelije, 2018) and Imaginary Revolution (Képzelt Forradalom, 2005). For the latter he was awarded several national and international prizes. He was a member of the Romanian National Film Board (CNC) and participated as a jury member at national and international film festivals.
He has several articles in Film and Television Studies. Balázs Zágoni is also the author of numerous fiction and non-fiction books written for young adults. For The Sphere – Black Light Series 1 (A Gömb – Fekete Fény 1) he was awarded the Best Young Adult Fiction Book Prize in 2019.
Courses: Film and Television History (1), Film and Television History (2), Film and Television Screenplay, Creative writing.
Office Hours: Monday 18-19, room 43, Kogălniceanu 4.
Assistant Professor, László CSIBI, PhD
László CSIBI, PhD
Assistant Professor
László Csibi studied Film and Media at the Faculty of Theatre and Television at the Babeş-Bolyai University. He is the director and producer of several documentary films (Nussbaum 95736; Sweet Transylvania, Here We Were) and musical videos which were screened and awarded at national and international film festivals. He received his PhD degree from the Babeş-Bolyai University for his thesis called “Count Sámuel Teleki’s Expedition in Africa: The Heritage of Documents and Photographs”. Besides investigating Count Teleki’s expeditions in Africa, László Csibi’s research and publications focus on the history of photography and the contemporary oral history of Transylvania.
He is an experienced television reporter, video editor, video artist and sound engineer (TVR Cluj, Digi24 TV Cluj-Napoca).
He is the founder and head of Kolozsvár Filmmaking Workshops, an organization which helps Cluj-based high–school students to develop their photo and filmmaking skills.
He also works as an associate Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences (FSPAC).
Courses: Photography (1), Photography (2), Basics of Film and TV Image, Documentary Film Basics.
Link CV: http://thesilentgroup.com/cv/csibi_laszlo.pdf
Office hours: Tuesday 11-12, room 31, Kogălniceanu 4.
Assistant Professor, Iosif KATONA, PhD
Iosif KATONA, PhD
Assistant Professor
Iosif Katona specializes in musical theater directing.
He completed his PhD Degree at the Gheorghe Dima Music Academy with his thesis “The Aesthetics of Mozart’s Dramaturgy. Contemporary Visions”.
His artistic practice focuses on national as well as international theater plays, operas and musicals for children.
His professional experience includes twenty-four years in higher education, thirty-one years in stage directing and thirty-four years in Cultural Management, Organization Management, Cultural Project’s Management and Artistic Entrepreneurship as well as fifty-one in the music industry – of which he acted twenty-five years as an active musician.
He specialized in Art and Cultural Institutional Management at French and German institutes.
He attended two masterclasses with the American director Andrei Șerban as well as a specialization course with Vincent Liotta at the Indiana University. He also spent one semester at the Theater and Film Academy in Budapest.
He organized annual conferences, festivals, competitions, exhibitions, as well as workshops and masterclasses for students.
His research focuses on cultural management, film music and musicals, comparative aesthetics and professional ethics.
Courses: Audiovisual Marketing and Management, Ethics and Legislation in Audiovisual Media, Elaboration of the BA Thesis, Music Videos (MA), Film Soundtracks (MA), Preparation: Final Exam Film and Thesis (MA).
Office hours: Tuesday 13-14, room 36, Kogălniceanu 4.
Assistant Professor, Katalin ORBÁN, PhD
Katalin ORBÁN, PhD
Assistant Professor
Katalin Orbán specializes in media research, including non-verbal communication in cinematography and television. She is also an active television journalist, a senior staff member, editor and moderator of the Cluj Regional Television Studio at the Romanian Television.
She received her doctoral degree from the Doctoral School of Hungarology at the Babes-Bolyai University. Her awards include the European Parliament Prize for Journalism (national section) for her reportage Gödör (The Pit). She is the author of several documentary films and has been credited in numerous international television productions.
Katalin Orbán is also the production manager and supervisor of Fecni (an online digital magazine), which broadcasts in the Romanian Television’s Hungarian programme.
Courses: Audiovisual Production: Portrait Film, Television Reporting, Non-verbal Communication in Audiovisual Media.
Office hours: Tuesday 13-14, room 38, Kogălniceanu 4.
Assistant Professor, Júlia Anna MAKKAI, PhD
Júlia Anna MAKKAI, PhD
Assistanr Professor
Júlia Anna Makkai is an expert in communication studies and specialized in PR (Public Relations) and branding.
She holds a doctoral degree from the Doctoral School of Hungarology at the Babeș-Bolyai University in the field of Philology and Communication studies. During her PhD studies, she also took courses at the Université Paris-Est Créteil (UPEC) in Paris. She studied communication and PR at the Faculty of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences (FSPAC) at the Babeș-Bolyai University.
She did research on various topics, including representation analysis and applied communication (PR, branding), as well as television studies, GDPR and digital data protection.
She is an experienced communication specialist in the field of institutional PR, including press relations, event organization and social media management. She also works as an assistant lecturer at the UBB’s Faculty of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences (FSPAC) and Department of Communication, Public Relations and Advertising.
Courses: Management in Film Production, Theory of Communication, Legislation and Ethics in Audiovisual Media, New Media.
Assistant Professor, Péter VENCZEL, PhD
Péter VENCZEL, PhD
Assistant Professor
Venczel Peter specialises in Music Composition, Sound Design and Foley. He also works as a stage music director at the Hungarian State Theatre of Cluj. He completed his PhD in the field of Soundtrack in Film and Theatre.
He composed numerous musicals, rock operas, ballet and theatre pieces as well as movie soundtracks. His name is associated with the famous Transilvanian Rock Opera Mathias Rex. He is also the composer of the well-known family musical Ali Baba and/or The Forty Thieves. For his latest work, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, he was awarded the SCENA Prize from the Gheorghe Dima Music Academy of Cluj-Napoca.
Courses: Digital Sound Processing, Sound Design – Audio Mixing, Post-production: Sound and Editing.
Office Hours: Friday 13-14, Lecture Hall 5, Central Building.
VISITING PROFESSORS
Guest Lecturer (Spec.) BIRÓ Boróka
Biró Boróka
borokabiro@gmail.com
Boróka Biró is an emerging cinematographer based in Bucharest. She finished cinematography studies (BA, MA) at the National Film and Theatre University in Bucharest in 2014. She is specialised in fiction films, commercials, and documentaries.
She shot several short movies during her studies. After, she shot a feature film, “It Takes Two To Fence” with its world premiere at Mons IFF and she got Young Hope Award at Gopo Gala for its cinematography.
During and after her studies she worked on various national and international movies as a camera assistant, focus puller and camera operator on movies like Sieranevada (Cristi Puiu), Sons of Liberty (Kari Skogland), Dragonheart 4 (Patrik Syversen), What Happened to Monday (Tommy Wirkola), Touch Me Not (Adina Pintilie, Ursul de aur), Tatal Muta Muntii (Daniel Sandu), Ruxx (Iulia Rugina, HBO), Wednesday (Tim Burton, Netflix).
She participated at several workshops/masterclasses like Imago Cinematography Masterclass, ASC Cinematography Masterclass with mentors like Oliver Stapleton, Haskell Waxler, Mandy Walker, Cristopher Doyle etc. Boroka is an alumna of Talents Sarajevo 2017 and Berlinale Talents 2021.
Guest Lecturer (Spec.) Sándor CSOMA
Sándor CSOMA
Sándor Csoma is a Budapest-based film director. He graduated from the University of Theatre and Film (Film Directing MA) and holds a degree from the Metropolitan University (Moving Image Artists MA) as well as the Karoli Gaspar University (Hungarian literature and language).
His focus is on narrative films. Csoma has written and directed several short movies (Casting, Nothing has happened, Tabula rasa) which were awarded numerous Hungarian and international awards (Hungarian Film Award, Busho Film Festival, Zsigmond Vilmos Festival, Golden Eye Film Festival, Imago Film Festival etc). He is now working on the post-production of his first feature film, Highs and Lows.
Courses: Visual Experiment in Short Film, Set design for film and television
Office hours:
Guest Lecturer (Spec.) Nándor, JAKAB-BENKE
JAKAB-BENKE Nándor
Nándor Jakab-Benke film critic, literary translator, editor-in-chief at Filmtett – Transylvanian Film Site. He acquired a bachelor’s degree at Babeș-Bolyai University in journalism, where he went on to get a master’s degree as well. He was awarded with another BA in film and TV directing at Sapientia – Hungarian University of Transylvania in 2008, since then he’s working as an editor and film critic and co-organizer of Filmtett Workshop and the yearly Cluj film festival Filmtettfeszt. Between 2008-2013 he was the editor of kukker.ro, an entertainment portal where he was responsible to produce short, funny videos. He was the Hungarian co-translator of Robert McKee’s seminal Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting. Their feature-length movie about the impossibity of local film production – Antigone, or Let’s Make Movies in Transylvania! – was presented in 2010 at the Hungarian Film Week as well as the 10th edition of Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF).
Guest Lecturer (Spec.) Gáspár Gábor KALAMÁR
Gáspár Gábor KALAMÁR
Guest Lecturer (Spec.)
Kalamár Gáspár Gábor specializes in commercial video production. He is the founder and creative director of Gavart Productions Company.
He received his Master’s Degree from the Faculty of European Studies in Cultural and Visual Anthropology at the Babeş-Bolyai University. He completed his Bachelor Degree in Art History. He also studied at the Karl Franzens Universität Graz and the Alpen Adria Universität Klagenfurt in Austria.
After his studies, he worked as a secretary and PR manager at the Scientific Research Department of the Sapientia University, where he coordinated the publishing process of Scientia Publishing House and Acta Universitatis Sapientiae. He was promoted to senior PR manager at the Rector’s Office and organized the work of Faculty PR managers by producing commercial videos for the university.
After some years of intensive work in coordinating university campaigns, he eventually established his own team of talented young filmmakers and photographers. As for today, Gavart produces visual content for companies including Bosch, Emerson, E-On, Mol Romania, OTP Bank, EnergoBit, Office Depot, L’Oréal Professionnel.
Courses: Use of Audiovisual Equipment, Film workshop, Copywriting, Video and Film Advertising.
Link CV: http://bit.ly/kggCvEng
Office hours: online
Guest Lecturer (spec.) Sándor MIKLÓS
Sándor MIKLÓS
Guest Lecturer (spec.)
Sándor Miklós specializes in video editing and post production. He is a devoted public media journalist and has been working as a video editor and graphic designer at the Romanian National Television for more than fifteen years.
In 2016, he received the Csép Sándor Award for his activity at the Minorities Section of the Romanian National Television. He is the editor of several award-winning television productions and documentaries.
With an engineering degree in computer science, he has advanced knowledge in post-production digital technologies.
He is also a folk dance instructor, choreographer and cultural project manager.
Courses: Film and Television Editing Basics, Audiovisual Production (2): Editing, Post-production: Sound, Editing, Special Effects in Post–production, Post-production: Editing and Sound (MA).
Office hours: Monday 08-09, room 11., Kogălniceanu 4.
Assistant Professor Gábor REISZ
Gábor REISZ
Assistant Professor
Gábor Reisz is a film director, screenwriter and songwriter. He graduated from the University of Theater and Film of Budapest with a degree in film and television directing (2011). He gained his fame with his first feature For Some Inexplicable Reason (2014), which was awarded numerous international prizes (Torino Film Festival, Jameson CineFest, etc.). His second feature Bad Poems (2018) won the Best Director and Best Feature Film prizes at the Hungarian Film Week (2019).
Courses: Film Essay (MA), Fiction film (Elective course, MA), Film Theory.
Office hours:
Visiting Lecturer Ábel VISKY, drd.
Ábel VISKY, drd.
Visiting Lecturer
Ábel Visky specializes in film directing. He is about to complete his DLA in film directing at the University of Theater and Film Arts, Budapest. His research focuses on fictional directing methods in documentary filmmaking. His artistic practice is characterized by the creative combination of documentary and fictional filmmaking methods. His technical expertise include writing, directing, and editing short and feature films, both fiction and documentary. His projects include award-winning short documentaries, short fictions and a feature long creative documentary.
His films have been screened in numerous festivals, including the Hot Docs International Documentary Festival, Canada; Fipadoc International Documentary Festival, France; Buenos Aires International Documentary Festival, Argentia; Sao Paolo International Film Festival, Brazil; GZDOC International Documentary Festival, China; Trieste International Short Film Festival, Italy; Augbagne International Short Film Festival, France; and Cinema Jove International Short Film Festival, Valencia, Spain.
His film received numerous awards, including The Best Director Award at the Watersprite International Student Film Festival, the Best Director Prize at National Independent Film Festival, the Silver Medal of the UNICA International Short Film Festival, the Main Prize at Tres Courts International Short Film Festival, as well as the Jury’s Special Award at the Busho Internațional Short Film Festival, Budapest.
Courses: Film Essay (MA), Fiction Film Directing (MA).
Office hours:
EMERITI/RETIRED PROFESSORS
XANTUS Gábor
Gábor XANTUS, PhD
Professor of Documentary Film Studies
As a cinematographer, director, screenwriter as well as professor of Film Studies, Gábor Xantus holds more than twenty-two national and global film awards. He started his career as the youngest journalist of the Romanian Television and soon embarked on shooting on 16 mm film – something that was a real novelty at the time. After his doctoral studies in Bucharest (which he completed with distinction in Documentary Film Studies), he established the first Hungarian television workshop in Transylvania (1990) and later participated in creating the well-known cultural-religious Filetheos Studio (1997) and the Television of Cluj. Gábor Xantus also contributed to the re-opening of the Cluj Radio by creating the first radio programmes in the Hungarian language. He was one of the first filmmakers to document the 1989 system change in Romania.
Gábor Xantus specializes in documentary filmmaking.
He is the founder of the Film, Photography and Media Department of the Sapientia EMTE University where he also lectured between 2002 and 2003.
He is the author and cinematographer of more hundreds of documentary films, including outstanding examples in cultural, historical as well as sociographical subjects. He participated in more than sixteen revelatory documentary expedition projects which explored and filmed several continents and rarely seen territories, including the Antarctica, Africa, Australia, North as well as South America, Cuba, Hawaii, Galapagos, Papua New Guinea, Borneo, Comodo, and the islands of Micronesia and Polynesia.
In his courses at master’s level, he teaches students of the art of recording on celluloid and the
overall cinematic contextualization of documentary films.
Courses: Short Documentary Film (MA), Docu-drama and Mockumentary (MA).
BÁTORI Anna
Anna BATORI, PhD
Associate Professor
Anna Batori specializes in modern film theory and history.
She completed her PhD in Film Studies at the University of Glasgow. Her research focuses on national cinemas, digital media and cognitive and phenomenological film theory.
She is the author of Space in the Romanian New Wave and Contemporary Hungarian Cinema (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). Anna Batori has published on a great variety of topics, including contemporary German cinema, German-Turkish cinema, Eastern European filmmaking, local and global series and extreme cinema. Her current research focuses on the de-narrativization tendencies and robotization techniques of contemporary Hollywood cinema.
Courses: Introduction to Cinematographic Language, Film Aesthetics, Visual Anthropology (MA).
MEDVIGY GÁBOR
Gábor MEDVIGY
As a Hungarian cinematographer, Gábor Medvigy is well-known for his long-time collaboration with film director Béla Tarr. He graduated from the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest in 1986 and has worked in several feature films throughout the years. He photographed the films of Károly Makk (The Way You Are, 2009), Zoltán Kamondi (Temptations, 2002, Dolina, 2006), Attila Janisch (The Day After, 2004) and Béla Tarr (Satantango, 1994, Werckmeister Harmonies, 1999) and collaborated in several television productions. Medvigy holds several international and national prizes. For his outstanding artistic work, he was awarded the Hungarian Government’s Artist of Merit Award in 2009.