Radu Jude

Radu Jude
Jude in 2020
Born	(1977-03-28) 28 March 1977 (age 47) Bucharest, Romania
Alma mater	Media University of Bucharest
Occupation(s)	Director Screenwriter
Years active	2002–present

Radu Jude (Romanian: [ˈradu ˈʒude]; born 28 March 1977) is a Romanian film director and screenwriter.

Biography

In 2003, Jude graduated from the Film Directing Department of the Media University of Bucharest. He worked as an assistant director for feature films including Amen., directed by Costa-Gavras and The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, directed by Cristi Puiu. He directed several short films, among them Corp la corp (2003), Marea Neagră (2004), Lampa cu căciulă (2006) – the most awarded Romanian short film of all time, winner of grand prizes at Sundance, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Grimstad, Hamburg, Bilbao, Huesca, Trieste, Montpellier, Cottbus, Aspen, IndieLisboa, Brussels, Mediawave, Kraków, Almería, Valencia, Uppsala and selected, among others, at Toronto, Telluride, New Directors/New Films Festival, Tampere, Rotterdam. His short films Dimineața (2007) and Alexandra (2007) were selected in over 30 festivals, including Clermont-Ferrand, San Francisco, Cottbus, and Oberhausen (where he won the Grand Prix). Jude also directed over 100 commercials.^[1]

The Happiest Girl in the World is his feature debut.^[2] Before the theatrical release in Romania, Cea mai fericită fată din lume won the CICAE Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival, the FIPRESCI Award ( International Federation of Film Critics ) at the Sofia International Film Festival, the Prize for Best Screenplay at the Bucharest International Film Festival and FIPRESCI Prize at IndieLisboa. The film was selected in ACID Programme at 2009 Cannes Film Festival.

In 2011, he directed and produced the independent Film pentru prieteni. His feature film Everybody in Our Family (2012) premiered at the Berlinale Forum and received the Heart of Sarajevo Award and the Bayard d'Or in Namur, among other awards.^[3]

Jude's Aferim!^[4] won the Silver Berlin Bear for Best Director at the 2015 Berlin Film Festival.^[5] The movie was also nominated at Tribeca Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival, Hong Kong International Film Festival, AFI Fest, London Film Festival, and Berlin International Film Festival. The film was selected as the Romanian official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards reaching the short list but was not nominated.^[6]

Jude returned to the Berlin International Film Festival in 2020 with his new film Uppercase Print, the story of Mugur Călinescu, a Romanian teenager who wrote protest graffiti messages against the communist regime of dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu and was subsequently apprehended and interrogated by the secret police.^[7][8] The film screened in the Forum section of the Berlinale as a world premiere. The film festival also featured his documentary film Ieșirea trenurilor din gară, co-directed with Adrian Cioflâncă.^[9]

Jude won the Golden Bear at the 2021 Berlin International Film Festival for Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn.^[10]

An English-language monograph on Jude's work was published in 2023: Beyond the New Romanian Cinema: Romanian Culture, History, and the Films of Radu Jude, by Andrei Gorzo and Veronica Lazăr.

In December 2023, alongside 50 other filmmakers, Jude signed an open letter published in Libération demanding a ceasefire and an end to the killing of civilians amid the 2023 Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, and for a humanitarian corridor into Gaza to be established for humanitarian aid, and the release of hostages.^[11][12][13]

Filmography

Jude (left) with the rest of the Main Competition jury at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival in 2023

Director

• În familie (TV series, 2002)
• Lampa cu căciulă (short, 2006)
• Alexandra (short, 2006)
• Dimineața (short, 2007)
• The Happiest Girl in the World (2009)
• Film pentru prieteni (2011)
• Everybody in Our Family (2012)
• O umbră de nor (short, 2013)
• Trece și prin perete (short, 2014)
• Aferim! (2015)
• Scarred Hearts (2016)
• Țara moartă (The Dead Nation) (documentary, 2017)
• I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians (2018)
• Ieșirea trenurilor din gară (documentary, 2020)
• Uppercase Print (2020)
• Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (2021)
• Plastic Semiotic (short, 2021)
• The Potemkinists (short, 2022)
• Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (2023)
• Eight Postcards from Utopia (2024)

Writer

• Alexandra (short, 2006)
• Dimineața (short, 2007)
• Cea mai fericită fată din lume (2009)
• Stanka se pribira vkashti (2010)
• My Tired Father (co-writer, 2011)
• Film pentru prieteni (writer, 2011)
• Everybody in Our Family (screenplay, 2012)
• Trece și prin perete (writer, 2014)
• Aferim! (screenplay, 2015)
• Scarred Hearts (screenplay, based on the Max Blecher novel, 2016)
• Plastic Semiotic (short, 2021)
• The Potemkinists (2022)
• Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (2023)

Assistant director

• Amen. (2002)
• Furia (2002)
• Moartea domnului Lăzărescu (2005)

Producer

• Alexandra (2006)
• Film pentru prieteni (2011)
• Trece și prin perete (2014)

References

1. "Radu Jude". Cinemagia (in Romanian).
2. "Radu Jude, regizor: "Mă influențează viața mea și a celor din jur"". Adevărul (in Romanian). 14 April 2012.
3. "Radu Jude". Festival Scope. Archived from the original on 2015-02-15. Retrieved 2015-02-15.
4. Dalton, Stephen (11 February 2015). "Aferim! by Radu Jude Review". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
5. Tartaglione, Nancy (14 February 2015). "Aferim! wins the Silver Berlin Bear for Best Director". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
6. Linden, Sheri (21 January 2016). "Aferim!, Romania's entry for the Foreign Language Academy Awards won the Silver Berlin Bear for Best Director". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
7. Goodfellow, Melanie (21 January 2020). "Uppercase Print". Screen Daily. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
8. Cardamenis, Forrest (15 November 2021). "The Horror and Humor of Romania's Dictatorship". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
9. Obenson, Tambay (20 January 2020). "Iesirea trenurilor din gara, by Radu Jude and Adrian Cioflanca". IndieWire. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
10. "The Prizes of the International Jury". Retrieved 7 March 2021.
11. "Gaza : des cinéastes du monde entier demandent un cessez-le-feu immédiat". Libération (in French). 28 December 2023. Retrieved 24 January 2024.
12. Newman, Nick (29 December 2023). "Claire Denis, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Christian Petzold, Apichatpong Weerasethakul & More Sign Demand for Ceasefire in Gaza". The Film Stage. Retrieved 24 January 2024.
13. "Directors of cinema sign petition for immediate ceasefire". The Jerusalem Post. 31 December 2023. Retrieved 24 January 2024.

External links

• Radu Jude at IMDb