Born in Romania in 1979, he is a theatre and film director and holds a PhD in Dramaturgy. He studied Drama at the National University of Theatre and Film in Bucharest, and has worked as an actor in films by Cristian Mungiu, Adrian Sitaru, Contantin Popescu and Dan Chisu. His performances have earned him several awards, and he likewise achieved recognition at the Anonimul Festival in Romania for his short film ‘Chicken, Fries and Coke’ (2012). His filmography also includes the shorts ‘A Family’ (2009), ‘2’ (2013), ‘Square One’ (2013), ‘Meda’ (2016) and ‘Everything Is Far Away’ (2018), best foreign short at Meeting Point in Seminci. With his first feature film, ‘The Not So Bright Side of Things’ (2017), he won two Heart of Sarajevo awards, for best director and best actor. After premiering ‘Mikado’ (2021), his second feature film, in San Sebastian, in 2024 he won the Queer Palm at the Cannes Film Festival thanks to ‘Three Kilometres to the End of the World’.