By Robert St. Martin
Gala opening of the 20th Anniversary of SEEfest – the South East European Film Festival – on Wednesday. April 30, 2025, at the Writers Guild in Beverly Hills.
Vera Mijojlić is the originator and on-going cultural producer of SEEfest. The 20th annual South SEEfest, co-presented by ELMA, the foundation for European Languages and Movies in America, is celebrating its 20th year of presenting and celebrating the cinematic and cultural diversity of 20 countries of Eastern Europe, the Balkans and Caucasus. At the opening, Vera Mijojic presented the annual SEEfest Legacy Award to actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, clean energy advocate and former governor of California.
The night’s opening film was “The New Years That Never Came,” a 2024 Romanian historical tragicomedy film written and directed by Bogdan Mureșanu in his feature directorial debut. A slyly funny, thrillingly confident work full of wit, irony and empathy, this robust ensemble piece unfolds over two days in late December 1989 in a Bucharest sapped of seasonal spirit, as white-hot, sidewalk-level fury at the Nicolae Ceausescu regime cuts through the December cold. “That New Years That Never Came” premiered at the 81st Venice International Film Festival on 1 September 2024, where it won the Orizzonti Award for Best Filmmaker.
Even as TV bureaucrats put the final touches on New Year’s shows that glorify the president, the streets are alive with demonstrations and students mock the regime through art. Meanwhile, behind closed doors, families grapple with personal conflicts and the omnipresent Secret Police. Six seemingly disconnected lives intersect in unexpected ways. As tensions reach a boiling point, an explosive moment brings them together, culminating in the dramatic fall of Ceausescu and the communist regime in 1989.
The sold-out screening was followed by a lovely reception with food and wine at the Writers Guild.
