In 2005, the Cannes Film Festival recognized and rewarded the “Un Certain Regard” award to “The Death of Mister Lazarescu”, a film written and directed by Romanian filmmaker, Cristi Puiu. Then in 2010, the Berlin Film Festival gave the Grand Jury Prize to Romanian made film “If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle” by Florin Șerban. Romanian filmmakers other than, Puiu, and Șerban that are also getting recognized internationally are, Corneliu Porumboiu, Radu Muntean, and Adina Pintilie.
Internationally, Romanian film has been overpowering compared to the larger market in North America and Europe. You could say Romania is going through its own ‘new wave’ right now. In 2016, the London film festival had a large amount of Romanian films. Audiences go see these Romanian films because their cinema is discovering new ways of telling the post-communism cinema that engulfed Romanian cinema from 1948 to 1989. Filmmakers like, Cristi Puiu, has been a huge part of changing Romanian cinema in the early 2000s. The other film that helped push Romania as one of the best film countries was Corneliu Porumboiu’s “12:08 East of Bucharest” which won the ‘Un Certain Regard prize’.
The fathers of Romanian New Wave are said to be, Cristi Puiu, Corneliu Porumboiu, and Cristian Mungiu. These three men have helped Romanian directors today have their films watched by a large international audience. Most of the films that appeal to audiences are under the genre ‘Black Comedy’ or ‘Drama’, there is a limited amount of action genre films like we see in Hollywood all the time now. People go to see films in Romanian Cinema because they are stories about people, audiences that want rich stories will go see a film by Cristi Puiu and now filmmakers Adina Pintilie, Anca Damian, and new director Cristina Jacob go the cinema to see something different audiences have never seen. Their stories are about the people and their choices, they are not always the hero. In North America, we have few well-known directors that do this, Wes Anderson, and Noah Baumbach are two directors that come to mind, though Romanian cinema there is a large population of old and new directors that are trying to create stories that people can connect to.
Corneliu Porumboiu Cristi Puiu Cristian mungiu
There is a specific visual representation in new wave Romanian cinema. This is because there is not a lot of funding going into these films. Which also explains why the films in this country are mostly ‘black humor’ and ‘drama’. Instead of doing large, action-packed shoots, the films feel like they are minimalist. The most expensive film made by a Romanian filmmaker was five million dollars, the film ended up making just over five thousand dollars and was only nominated in the GOPO awards ceremony. Romanian films survive off stories about realistic people and the struggles characters go through, with a minimalist visual look. It is what helped start the new wave in Romanian cinema and it is what today’s Romanian directors do best.
Romanian Cinema 