Riding high off his acclaimed “Don’t Expect Too Much From the End of the World,” Romanian director Radu Jude has revealed that he’ll be premiering TWO new films in 2025.
First off, Jude’s “Dracula,” which wrapped production in September, will be the filmmaker’s unique take on the vampire character. Jude had previously teased the film, saying at Locarno Film Festival that it was “about damn time” a Romanian made a Dracula film.
“As the character played by Adonis Tanța says at the beginning of the film: It’s a super-commercial film,” Jude tells Films in Frame. “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.”
It’s not just “Dracula.” Jude further reveals he’s finished another “surprise film,” also set for 2025 premiere. “Continental ’25” was “filmed independently, low-budget, in Cluj and Florești,” Jude tells the outlet. It’s being described as “a moral dilemma post festum […] a modest attempt at dialogue with some themes from Rossellini’s Europa ’51.”
Two new images, for both films, have been unveiled, and can be seen below.
Jude has emerged as one of the more interesting international filmmakers of recent years. He won the coveted Golden Bear in 2021 for “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn”; The win came six years after Jude earned the Silver Bear for the historical drama, “Aferim!”
No slouch in terms of controversy over the years, ‘Bad Luck,’ shot and set during the COVID-19 pandemic, followed what happens after secondary-school teacher Emi has a sex video uploaded online, and the “cancel culture” backlash that ensues at her work because of it.
Netflix and Skydance Animation have also called it quits. The two sides announced Monday that they're ending the animated film deal struck back in 2023, framing it as a mutual decision.