Romanian director Bogdan Mureșanu’s animated short The Magician has joined the pool of films eligible for consideration at the 99th Academy Awards. The film was named best animated short at Romania’s 2026 Gopo Awards.
The production premiered internationally at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 2025 and recently screened at the Dallas International Film Festival. It also received a special mention at the Bucharest Short Film Festival.
Its festival run has included several Oscar-qualifying events, including Spain’s Huesca International Film Festival, HollyShorts and RiverRun in the United States, Ireland’s Dingle Animation Film Festival, and the Tirana International Film Festival.
“The fact that, six years later, history is repeating itself in such a beautiful and surprising way, with a place on the longlist for the Oscar nominations, makes me happy and honored,” Bogdan Mureșanu said.
He thanked international distributor Mailuki Films, the production team and those who supported the project.
Based on a story published in Mureșanu’s short-fiction collection Errata, the film is set in Sulina in 1910, on the evening the Danube port inaugurates its first power plant. Its protagonist, the magician Ilarion, is caught in a forbidden love story while worrying about how he will earn a living in an increasingly modern world.
“I had long wanted to bring a vanished world back to life, and animation allowed me to recreate the settings in which the story unfolds from still images,” director Mureșanu said. “Animation was a medium that suited my intention: not to illustrate the glory of a lost world, but to represent the essence of the story.”
The voice cast includes Cosmin Șofron, Mihai Gruia Sandu, Ioana Flora, Olimpia Melinte, Valeriu Andriuță, Adriana Titieni, and Tudor Istodor. Alexandru Talambă served as artistic director, while Didier Falk composed the music.
Bogdan Mureșanu previously reached the Academy Awards shortlist with The Christmas Gift, which won best European short film at the 2019 European Film Awards.
He is also the writer, director and producer of The New Year That Never Came, winner of the best film and FIPRESCI awards in the Orizzonti section of the 2024 Venice Film Festival.