Grand Prix Nova Romania

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Grand Prix Nova Romania

Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company
Grand Prix Nova - International Radio Drama Festival Risking a break with tradition is an act of courage. We reward it.

Grand Prix Nova is a competitive festival for radio productions from all over the world, a landmark for radio professionals who continuously explore their craft. The festival encourages original work, trying to discover and promote artists who breathe new life into sound fiction, with the stated purpose of attracting new categories of listeners. We believe the international festival stage does not

have a nexus for innovative forms. This is a crucial moment for the radio genre, which every agent involved in it can feel right now. Many other arts are experiencing the same thing, and are trying to redefine themselves and their role in the evolution of society. There are artists who believe this is a syncretic moment in artistic forms, an idea that radio should not rule out beforehand. We believe there is a need for a laboratory where dedicated people may meet and try to design a viable future for radio, to rediscover its meanings and possibilities. The Grand Prix Nova Festival aims to provide a constructive environment for shared experience for producers and creators of radio works who wish to prepare this special artistic genre for new approaches in the century that has just begun. Grand Prix Nova is aimed at radio creators from all over the world, as it wishes to take the pulse of performance in this genre in a given year.

14/06/2026

🟡 𝐓𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐚𝐭 𝟏𝟗:𝟎𝟎, 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐱 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐚 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔 𝐛𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐬.

We open the 14th edition of the festival with a remarkable 𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 by the Berlin-based sound art duo 𝐌𝐞𝐫𝐳𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐚 (𝐄𝐯𝐚 𝐏𝐨̈𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐢𝐧 & 𝐉𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐨 𝐇𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐯𝐬𝐤𝐲): 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑨𝒊𝒓 𝑰𝒔 𝑫𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 – 𝑻𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑵𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑳𝒖𝒍𝒍𝒂𝒃𝒊𝒆𝒔.

Drawing from the extraordinary collections of the Berlin Phonogramm-Archive, the artists weave together lullabies from across the world into an immersive electro-acoustic composition that explores memory, cultural identity, and the universal ritual of singing a child to sleep.

Created for the 250-channel immersive sound space at the Humboldt Forum in Berlin and premiered in 2025, the work will be presented alongside insights into its artistic process and a live performance that envelops the audience in a global nocturnal soundscape.

Join us for an evening where sound becomes landscape, lullabies become living heritage, and nightfall connects cultures across continents.

🌙Tonight, 14th June 2026, 19:00 (7 PM)
📍 Teatrelli (Bucharest, no. 7 Piața Alexandru Lahovari)
🎧 Grand Prix Nova 2026 Opening Event

13/06/2026

In keeping with the tradition of international competitions, the festival maintains its collective jury format, composed of representatives from all productions selected for the competition.

This year’s jury is chaired by 𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐀 𝐊𝐄𝐘𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐒, Director of the prestigious 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒙 𝑬𝒖𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒂 𝑭𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒂𝒍 (Berlin), a highly respected figure in the field who is not participating in the competition with any production. She will also present 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒙 𝑬𝒖𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒂 as part of the 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐱 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐚 𝐇𝐮𝐛 programme.
🟡
Verena Keysers currently serves as Chief of Staff to the Director General of 𝐑𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐤 𝐁𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐧-𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐠 (𝐫𝐛𝐛). After studying Literature, Theatre Studies, and Cultural Communication in Berlin and Paris, she established herself professionally as a producer in theatre and independent film, as well as in various departments of 𝐒𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐁𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐧 and 𝐫𝐛𝐛.
She was also responsible for dramaturgy and public relations for the renowned Berlin-based dance theatre company 𝐒𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐚 𝐖𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐳 & 𝐆𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬. In 2006, she returned to 𝐑𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐤 𝐁𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐧-𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐠, and since 2016 has served as Head of Programming for 𝐤𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐨, later 𝐫𝐛𝐛𝐊𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫. Since April 2023, she has held several positions within the office of the Director General of 𝐫𝐛𝐛.
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Her presence in Bucharest offers Romanian artists and audiences a unique opportunity to gain first-hand insight into the German tradition of radio drama (𝐻𝑜̈𝑟𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑒𝑙) and into 𝐷𝑒𝑢𝑡𝑠𝑐ℎ𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐾𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑢𝑟’s vision of audio fiction and sound-based storytelling.

Radio România

12/06/2026

🟡 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰𝒔 𝑰𝒎𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒕 | Belgium/Romania | category: DRAMA | ⏱️36 min.
Cristian Fierbinteanu + Bogdan Stamatin

🎧 About 15 years ago, Romanian director Bogdan Stamatin asked his
closest friends "What is important?". He filmed their answers and
presented them to the world as videos on the internet. The project
gained visibility, and the number of interviewees grew. The director then
resumed the process, after more than 10 years, to see how the answers
changed over time.

With some of these recordings, he created a video exhibition in 2025,
which, through its approach and production, straddles the seductive
boundary between art and anthropology.

And now, in 2026, we present "What is important" as a radio drama
centred on the same question that haunts us all. But while the real
people who can be seen in the online clips or on the screens of the
aforementioned exhibition answering the question "What is important?"
have clear identities—a face, a name, a personality—the characters in
the radio drama are not like that.

An Original Production by Cristian Fierbinteanu and Bogdan Stamatin

12/06/2026

🟡 𝑩𝒆𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒅 𝑻𝒓𝒖𝒕𝒉| Belgium | category: DRAMA | ⏱️55 min.
Jacques Lemaire

🎧Beyond Truth is a radio and forest drift in search of a lost father. Encounters, realities that intertwine. Questions with or without answers, artificial intelligence, people who believe or don't believe, polyphonic songs, an earthworm, an optical illusion.

Written, Directed and Sound Engineered by Jacques Lemaire
Produced by Pierre-Yves LeCunff

Stay tuned to find out more about the other competing productions!🔊

12/06/2026

🟡 𝑪𝒍𝒐𝒖𝒅𝒔 | Belgium | category: DRAMA | ⏱️52 min.
Anne Lepère

🎧 It begins with the narrator wandering in quiet contemplation, her gaze lost in the sky, when she is suddenly surprised by an eagle that lifts her upward. Carried through multiple layers of the atmosphere, she reaches the threshold of the Cloud Reserve, where she meets its guardian and embarks on an initiatory visit across shifting altitudes. As the journey progresses, the narrator becomes aware of the growing fragility of clouds, affected by present climate realities. Along the way, magical beings appear, including Big Grain, who investigates how clouds are perceived by humans today. These reflections gradually surface throughout the piece, leading to a climactic moment when the guardian invites the narrator to swallow a cumulus cloud—an intimate experience of becoming cloud from within, feeling each water-filled cell vibrate.

Movements between earth and sky punctuate encounters with the poem-clouds: Cumulus, Stratus, and Cirrus, each embodied through syllables, words, and sonic textures. Human voices emerge and dissolve like drifting cloud formations, shaped by the altitudes they inhabit—lively and playful in mid-levels, dark and dense below, light and ethereal above. The listening experience unfolds like watching a living sky, where clouds continuously pass and transform. CLOUDS is a meditation on impermanence, reminding us that no one lives under a uniform sky, nor one that is entirely grey or blue. And you—what color is your sky today?

An Original Production by Anne Lepère

Stay tuned to find out more about the other competing productions!🔊

11/06/2026

🟡 𝑼𝒑𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒆25. 𝑭𝒊𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑭𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒕 | Germany | category: DRAMA | ⏱️42 min.
Werner Cee

🎧 “Update25.Fire and Forget” is a salvo of brief, extremely concentrated compositions of text and sound, a walk through the shattered landscape strewn with the debris of humanity’s most brilliant, humble and evil memories and accomplishments: primitive violence rests here next to poetry, blatant lies next to documentation, erudition next to stupidity. Among the ruins, fragments from Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, rock music quotes and excerpts from Schubert’s Winter Journey flit about like will’o’the wisps , while leading politician’s madman strategies transform the whole world into a looney bin. In the wreckage you may detect quotes from reports written by displaced persons, cut-outs from censored horror movies mingled with biographic notes from a weapon’s inventor as well as lyrics by Jimi Hendrix.

"I came here as a stranger, As a stranger I depart " - is how Wilhelm Müller's 1820 cycle of poems used by Franz Schubert Winter ́s Journey“, begins.

While Schubert’s wanderer tells of his unrequited love and his disappointed hopes for political freedom, modern man forlornly crosses a world that hast become uncomprehensible. The piece’s sound journeys lead the listener into the existential depths of the present day.

An Original Production by Werner Cee

Stay tuned to find out more about the other competing productions!🔊

10/06/2026

🟡 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑷𝑪𝑹 𝑺𝒐𝒏𝒈 – 𝑻𝒓𝒚𝒑𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝑬𝒙𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒍) |North Macedonia| category: SHORT FORM | ⏱️12 min.
Ivanka Apostolova Baskar

🎧 Asynchronous deconstruction of the aria THE COLD SONG. Dimitrina Quinn Arthur faces the disillusionment of her lofty ambitions; she abstracts her agon and falls into agony before the virus of meaninglessness, hopelessness, and despair. Inspiration/motivation: THE COLD SONG (aria from the
semi-opera King Arthur by Henry Purcell, librettist: John Dryden) What power art thou/are you? Who from below Hast made me rise? Unwillingly and slow From beds of everlasting snow! See'st thou not how stiff And wondrous old? Far unfit to bear the bitter cold... I can scarcely move Or draw my breath I can scarcely move. Let me, let me Let me, let me Freeze again... Let me, let me Freeze again to death!

Produced and directed by Ivanka Apostolova Baskar
Author: John Dryden
Sound engineer: Mihailo Apostolov

Stay tuned to find out more about the other competing productions!

10/06/2026

🟡 𝑹𝑨𝑫𝑰𝑶 𝑳𝑺𝑫 – 𝑨𝒍𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒕 𝑯𝒐𝒇𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒏’𝒔 𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒑 | Switzerland | category: DRAMA | ⏱️50 min.
Flavio Stroppini

🎧 On the morning of April 19, 1943, Albert Hofmann synthesized L*D. At 5 PM he began to feel intoxicated and decided to cycle home. During that now famous ride, the symptoms became much more evident. His "first trip" is an opportunity to tell the story of the unstable era in which we live. Alarms blare. Our planet pitches, stumbles, crumbles, sinks. What time will the end of the world be? According to the "Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists" of the University of Chicago, which since 1947 has been trying to understand how close humanity is to destroying the planet with its technologies, we are 89 seconds from the Apocalypse.

For the protagonist of "RADIO L*D - Albert Hofmann's trip," the Apocalypse has already arrived. He finds himself alone, with his memories, his fears, and his hopes in a bunker. No signal from the world he knew except for the intermittent interferences of a particular radio station. RADIO L*D is a work that tells a journey within ourselves and into the world we live in. It is a cry to warn that our world is sinking.

Author: Flavio Stroppini and Andrea Manzoni
Director: Flavio Stroppini
Sound engineer: William Geroli (sound designer) and Thomas Chiesa (post production)
Producer: Francesca Giorzi

Stay tuned to find out more about the other competing productions!

09/06/2026

🟡𝑹𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒐 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑱𝒖𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒕. 𝑨 𝑻𝒓𝒖𝒆 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝑪𝒓𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝑺𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 | Italy | category: SERIES | ⏱️5 episodes

🎧 The story is a modern and creative rewriting of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. It is set in Rome in 1989, the year the Berlin Wall fell, a moment of historical transition that mirrors the social and emotional tensions experienced by the younger generation. The two young protagonists attend neighbouring high schools that differ in social background and ideology: Capuleti, a conservative institute attended by affluent students, and Montecchi, where more radical and libertarian ideas circulate.

Each episode, apart from the first, presents a different character’s perspective, gradually revealing hidden tensions and unspoken desires. In the final episode, it emerges that Romeo, an idealistic Montecchi student, died after a violent confrontation with Paris, a brilliant yet spoiled Capuleti student unable to accept Juliet’s choice. The encounter, which took place at the school after closing time, ended in tragedy when Romeo fell during the struggle. Juliet arrived too late. Fearing she would find no comfort at home, she made a desperate decision that sealed the tragic outcome. Paris confesses his responsibility, while the truth about Juliet’s fate emerges only at the end through a moving letter addressed to her best friend.

Director/Sound engineer: Andrea Cocco
Producers: Andrea Cocco; Roma Tre Radio
Authors: Lucia Esposito and Maddalena Pennacchia (Directors of the ‘Literary Soundscapes’ Radio Company), and the students of the Department of Foreign Languages, Literatures and Cultures of Roma Tre University

Stay tuned to find out more about the other competing productions!

09/06/2026

🟡 𝑻𝒉è𝒃𝒆𝒔 (𝒆𝒑𝒊𝒔𝒐𝒅𝒆 2) | France | category: SERIES | ⏱️19 min.
Lélio Plotton

🎧 French author Lola Molina has written an adaptation of the myth of the Labdacids, one of the most fascinating stories in Greek mythology.
This adaptation is a three-episode audio fiction series. It is a reinterpretation of Oedipus Rex, Sophocles’ major work.
The first episode tells the story of Laius and Jocasta, Oedipus’ parents, from his birth—which heralds the prophecy—up to the moment he is abandoned so that it will not come true.
The second episode (the one currently available for listening) retraces the reign of Oedipus and Jocasta and recounts how Oedipus learns that the prophecy has indeed been fulfilled (he has killed his father Laius and married his mother Jocasta) and his flight from Thebes.
The third episode (currently being written) recounts the life of Antigone, daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta.
We conceived this trilogy as a contemporary crime thriller (with suspense and plot twists), set entirely in the city of Thebes. In this claustrophobic setting, marked by immense underlying violence, the characters grapple with their destiny, bound to a divine prophecy from which they are unable to free themselves.

Author: Lola Molina
Director: Lélio Plotton
Sound engineer: Bastien Varigault
Other key staff: Antoine Sastre, Cécile Bournay, Benoît Marchand, Raphaël Goguely, Daniel Anguera, Claude Esperanza

Stay tuned to find out more about the other competing productions! 🔊

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Berthelot Henri Mathias
Bucharest
010171

Website

http://www.grandprixnova.ro/

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