Roma Filmmaker Alina Șerban Makes Venice History With 'I Matter'
A film billed as the first feature from a female Roma director to screen at an A-list festival world-premiered at the 2026 Venice Film Festival on 6 September. Alina Șerban's I Matter, screening in the Venice Spotlight section, turns her own life into the story of a young Roma woman studying to be an actor while facing expulsion from her orphanage (Variety).
Șerban first told the story as a 2021 short film of the same name, whose festival run included a stop at New Directors/New Films. The feature expands that foundation, with newcomer Denisa Farcaș in the lead role (Variety). The Biennale's official program lists the cast as Denisa Farcaș, Sorin Mihai, Angelina Pavel, Vanessa Dancea, Raisa Mihai, Alexandru Stancu, Alina Berzunțeanu, and Natalia Călin (La Biennale di Venezia).
The premiere itself carried a charge that went beyond the screen. Nearly two dozen cast members attended, including 16 child performers who populate the film's orphanage. Roma band Mahala Rai Banda serenaded red-carpet arrivals (Variety). Șerban is no stranger to the Lido: she walked the 2023 Venice red carpet with the cast and crew of Goran Stolevski's Housekeeping for Beginners, in which she had a supporting role.
Behind the film sits a European production coalition. I Matter is produced by microFILM, 2Pilots Filmproduction, Frakas Prods., and Lemming Film, with Berlin-based Pluto Film handling international sales — the layer of the business that sells a finished film to distributors territory by territory, determining where and when audiences beyond the festival circuit can see it. Pluto Film picked up those sales rights ahead of the premiere (Deadline; Variety). The Hollywood Reporter published an exclusive clip from the film ten days before the screening, giving audiences an early look (The Hollywood Reporter).
Venice Spotlight, the section that programmed I Matter, selects up to eight titles without genre constraints, characterised by creative originality and innovation in their relationship with cinema (La Biennale di Venezia). The festival lists the film under its Italian/Romanian title, Eu contez (I matter) (La Biennale di Venezia).
For a film marketplace like Venice, where sales agents and buyers spend the festival deciding what reaches screens in the months ahead, a premiere with this kind of spotlight — a first-of-its-kind billing, a packed red carpet, and sales already in place — puts a title squarely in the conversation. What happens next depends on which distributors step forward and which territories Pluto Film can close.
