Ilinca Straton graduated from the Faculty of Theater and Film, Audiovisual Communication section, with a Master’s degree in Performing Arts and Film, at Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca. Since her student years, she has been writing scripts for short films, in parallel with specialized filmological analyses (essays, reviews). She wrote and directed her graduation film “COASTA”, a short film made in congruence with her graduation thesis – “how cinema witnesses death”, an analysis focused on the Romanian New Wave filmmakers. Her dissertation focused on an underexplored area, namely post-revolutionary Iranian cinema: from Abbas Kiarostami to Jafar Panahi. Also during this time, she developed a photography exhibition, emphasizing the relationship between film and photography (reinterpreting and recontextualizing iconic film sequences), followed by a public opening.
She has been working in the film industry for the past 7 years, focusing on different departments, both in the area of assistant directing (two feature films, short films, a TV series and a pilot) and in the production department – production coordinator and production assistant (on two other feature films, commercials and advertising campaigns). She was involved in the organization of a film bootcamp called “Transylvanian Moviepreneurs”, and also worked in the TIFF Industry department from the position of Industry Guest Coordinator. She is currently working as a scriptwriter on two feature films in development and has several articles published in “Dilema Veche”, focusing on the works of relevant film auteurs.