Radu Jude was born in 1977 in Bucarest, Romania and is both a film director and scenarist. His debut as a director was in 2002, with the film »In familie« (»In family«), which was made during his university studies. One year later, he graduated from the Film Directing Department at the University of Bucharest. He went on to work as an assistant director for feature films like »Amen,« directed by Costa-Gavrasor, and »Moartea domnului Lazarescu« (»The Death of Mister Lazarescu«), directed by Cristi Puiu in 2005.

As a director, Radu Jude’s short film »Lampa cu caciula« (»The tube with a hat«) is the most awarded Romanian short film of all times. In 2006, it received awards at several film festivals, including Sundance, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oberhausen and other international competitions.

In addition to directing films, Radu has also made over 100 commercials. His first feature, »Cea mai fericita fata din lume« (»The Happiest Girl in the World«) was made in 2009 and was selected in Berlin, Toronto, New York, Thessaloniki, Sarajevo and London film festivals, amongst others. Other films that he has directed and produced include the independent film, »A Film for Friends« (2011), as well as a comedy-drama feature, »Toată lumea din familia noastră« (»Everybody in Our Family«) in 2012. The latter was a Romanian-Dutch co-production, which premiered in the Berlinale-Forum and was awarded the Heart of Sarajevo at S.F.F.

He is a leading figure of Romanian New Wave, which began with the aforementioned Cristi Puiu’s films, and is characterised by »intense realism, with an underlying vein of black humour.« During his entire career, Radu Jude has worked with Ada Solomon as a producer, including on the feature film »Aferim!,« which participated in the main competition at the 2015 Berlinale and won several prestigious awards.

Radu has been engaged in theatre productions as well. In 2016 he directed Ingmar Bergman’s »Scenes from a Marriage« for the National Theater of Timișoara.