Bucharest, April 20th 2009 - Famous author Barry Gifford is awaited in Bucharest for three days of shooting on the set of the Phantom Father movie. Mr. Gifford will be starring in the role of Jack, the visionary friend of Robert Traum. The appearance of Mr. Gifford is considered by the producers as a highlight of the production, being one of the few occasions that the charismatic author has accepted a role he has been writing. A reason for Mr. Gifford to accept the role are his Romanian origins – the starting point of "The Phantom Father" memoirs book and of the movie bearing the same title.

Barry Gifford's novels have been translated into twenty-eight languages. His book Night People was awarded the Premio Brancati in Italy, and he has been the recipient of awards from PEN, the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Library Association, the Writers Guild of America, and the Christopher Isherwood Foundation.

David Lynch's film Wild at Heart, which was based on Gifford's novel, won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1990, and his novel Perdita Durango was made into a feature film by Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia in 1997.

Barry Gifford co-wrote with director David Lynch the film Lost Highway(1997); he also co-wrote with director Matt Dillon the film City of Ghosts(2003), as well as the libretto for Ichiro Nodaira's opera, Madrugada (2005).

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