After a major 2024 with the wider release of his blistering satire Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (which nabbed a spot in our top 10) and the premiere of a pair of smaller-scale, experimental films, Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude is gearing up for another big year. His forthcoming Dracula film earned much anticipation on our 2025 preview and now he has revealed he’s finished another surprise feature as well.
His new feature Continental ’25 was “filmed independently, low-budget, in Cluj and Florești,” Jude tells Films in Frame. Described as “a moral dilemma post festum,” the filmmaker adds it’s “a modest attempt at dialogue with some themes from Rossellini’s Europa ’51.” The cast features Eszter Tompa, Gabriel Spahiu, Adonis Tanța, Oana Mardare, Annamária Biluska, Marius Damian, and Ilinca Manolache. See the first look below.
When it comes to his vampire feature, it was originally going by Dracula Park, but it may be simplified to Dracula. “As the character played by Adonis Tanța says at the beginning of the film: It’s a super-commercial film,” Jude says. “Dracula, emotion, sex, nudity, vampires, zombies, action, lots of blood, violence, AI images, car chases and good quality comedy! 15 strong stories plus jokes, jokes, jokes – like “you’ll laugh until you piss yourself”, as it says on specialized sites.”
With an ensemble also including Alexandru Dabija, Oana-Maria Zaharia, Gabriel Spahiu, Alina Mișoc, Andrada Balea, Lukas Miko, Ilinca Manolache, Ana Dumitrașcu, Alexandra Harapu, Doru Taloș, Gheorghe Mezei, Rodica Negrea, Nicodim Ungureanu, Claudiu Dumitru, Endre Rácz, and Cosmin Stănilă, see the first image below.
Stay tuned as we await news of festival premieres for both features.