The Phantom Father, directed by Lucian Georgescu, was selected to compete in the 2012 Palm Beach International Film Festival, Florida (April 12^th - 19^th). The festival, founded in 1996, is dedicated to sustaining the new generation of filmmakers and recognizing new and original voices in the new world cinematography.

The film is visiting North America for the third time after its worldwide premiere in the Montreal IFF in august 2011 and after the extraordinary presentation in the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago, when the director Lucian Georgescu and the writer Barry Gifford attended the projections.

The Phantom Father was well received by the Chicagoan public and press, who wrote that this “nostalgic comedy” is a must-see (chicagoist.com). A few days after the premiere at the Gene Siskel Film Center, the online streaming platform PRESCREEN bought the film and was commercially launching it in the USA, being viewed thousands of times in only a few days.

A return-to-origin road-movie, The Phantom Father used as a starting point the short story „Almost Oriental” of American writer Barry Gifford („Wild at Heart”, „Lost Highway”, „Perdita Durango”) who also has a cameo in the film. A bitter sweet comedy, the film tells a double love story: on one hand, the one between American professor, Robert Traum (Marcel Iureş, in a role equally impressive and unprecedented), back in the home land of his father and uncle – the latter, a famous novelist, and the former, a gangster from Chicago – and Tania (Mihaela Sîrbu, whose acting was appreciated by Variety as a „formidable debut”) and, on the other hand, the love for old cinema, nomad, popular, naive and generous. A tender and nostalgic homage brought to a past era, The Phantom Father combines stylistically the postmodern and classical cinema, assisted by the Liviu Mărghidan’s photography as well as by the original soundtrack by Johannes Malfatti, which joins classic hits such as Supertramp’s Breakfast in America.

Along with Marcel Iureş and Mihaela Sîrbu, the film also features Valer Delakeza, Mihai Constantin, Mimi Brănescu, Victor Rebengiuc, Mariana Mihuţ, Nicodim Ungureanu, Vitalie Bantas, Marcello Cobzariu and Mirela Oprişor.

The Phantom Father marks the debut in feature film of Lucian Georgescu, writer, producer, film critic (Member of FIPRESCI), lecturer at the National University of Theatrical Arts and Cinematography in Bucharest. The movie had an extraordinary preview screening during this year's edition of Transylvania International Film Festival and was selected in the official competitive sections of the Montreal and Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festivals.

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