This presentation examines audio description (AD) as a form of intersemiotic translation through a comparative analysis of three contemporary Romanian films available with Romanian-language audio description on Netflix: Miami bici (2020), Tatǎl mută munții (2021) and Cursa (2025). Situated within the fields of Audiovisual Translation and Accessibility Studies, the paper draws on Roman Jakobson's concept of intersemiotic translation to explore how visual meaning is interpreted and reconstructed through verbal narration.
The comparative analysis focuses on the translation of visually relevant elements, including settings, character actions, facial expressions, emotions, and non-verbal narrative cues, according to specific guidelines. Particular attention is paid to the strategies employed to convey visual information, such as condensation, explicitation, omission, and interpretative description, as well as to the similarities and differences in the descriptive choices made across the three films.
The findings contribute to the growing body of research on audio description in Romanian, including the AVTIA (Audiovisual Translation for Inclusion and Accessibility), and highlight the value of comparative analysis for understanding current accessibility practices in audiovisual translation.
Alexandru NICOLA is currently an English teacher and a PhD student at the West University of Timisoara and he is doing research in AVT. He has graduated from the MA programs in The Theory and Practice of Translation at the West University of Timisoara and Educational Management at the Vasile Goldis Western University of Arad. He is interested in audio description, translation studies, and traveling.
Co-author:Adrian CÎNTAR is a Ph.D. Lecturer and researcher in Archaeology-related computer applications at the Faculty of Letters, History, Philosophy and Theology of the West University of Timisoara. His main interests are interdisciplinary approaches to teaching and research. He studied History and English for the BA program, then Applied Informatics for the MA programme. His PhD paper focused on IT Graphics, GIS and Topography applications in Archaeology. He is trained in GIS by ESRI in the USA. He teaches text editing, databases, introduction to Terminology, computer applied translation using SDL Trados and Ancient Roman Institutions. He is also the web designer of numerous websites for projects and institutions.
