The Oscars Race | Special Screening of "Traffic" in Los Angeles

We are excited to present, in partnership with Mindset Productions, the Consulate General of Romania in Los Angeles and with the support of Romanian Film Centre, a special screening of Traffic (Jaful secolului), the official Romanian submission for the 2025 Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.

The event will take place at the Laemmle Royal Theatre in Los Angeles on November 25 in the presence of director Teodora Ana Mihai, a powerful, daring voice among Romania’s younger cohort of filmmakers. Joining online will be the film’s producer and writer Cristian Mungiu, one of the most acclaimed contemporary filmmakers.

Traffic tells the story of Romanian immigrants who, driven by exploitation and invisibility, transform from unwanted second-class citizens into perpetrators of one of the most improbable crimes. Inspired by the real-life 2012 art heist in Rotterdam, the film uses the trappings of the genre to probe the moral and systemic fractures of contemporary Europe—its migrations, inequalities and the commodification of identity.

In Cristian Mungiu’s own words: “On one side we have societies where wealth and education allowed them to flourish to the point of losing survival instincts. On the other, we have migrants determined to succeed in exploiting what they see as the naivety of a decadent society… this film foreshadows a future generation doomed to repeat the same cycle.”

This event is part of an ongoing campaign to bring Traffic to the consideration of the members of the American Academy of Motion Pictures and before American cinephiles with the aim to foster dialogue about Romania’s vibrant and evolving creative scene.

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Host or Publisher Romanian Cultural Institute in New York