The Romanian New Wave is a genre of realist and often minimalist films made in Romania since the mid-aughts, starting with two award-winning shorts by two Romanian directors, namely Cristi Puiu's Cigarettes and Coffee, which won the Short Film Golden Bear at the 2004 Berlin International Film Festival, and Cătălin Mitulescu's Trafic, which won the Short Film Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival later that same year.

Themes

Aesthetically, Romanian New Wave films share an austere, realist and often minimalist approach. Furthermore, black humour tends to feature prominently. While several of them are set in the late 1980s, near the end of Nicolae Ceaușescu's totalitarian rule over communist Romania, exploring themes of freedom and resilience ( 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, The Paper Will Be Blue, The Way I Spent the End of the World, Tales from the Golden Age ), others, however ( The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu, California Dreamin', Tuesday, After Christmas ), unfold in modern-day Romania, and delve into the ways the transition to democracy and free-market capitalism has shaped Romanian society after the fall of communism in late 1989.

Award-winning films and directors

Romanian New Wave films and directors have won a significant number of important international movie awards at prestigious FIAPF-accredited film festivals. Below are a few notable examples: Legend:

Other notable works