Corneliu Porumboiu was born in 1975 in Vaslui, Romania. A prominent name in the Romanian contemporary cinema landscape, Porumboiu caught the public’s attention in 2006 when his first feature, 12:08 East of Bucharest, won the Caméra d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival.
His following films confirmed his talent as a director and storyteller, with his films Polistist, adjectiv (2009) and The Treasure (2015) winning other awards at Cannes. Porumboiu was also invited to festivals like Locarno and Berlin, and his film When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism was selected for Official Competition at LEFFEST’13.
When asked about his work within the context of Romanian films (Amir Ganjavie, 2015), the director replied that comedy and absurdity are traditions within his country’s cinema and, confirming this tendency, confesses to admiring Chekhov and Kafka’s stories. Marked by a certain realistic will and a strong political stance, Porumboiu's cinema manages to explore Romania's historical memory in a comical, nonsensical way. His latest film, The Whistlers, a captivating thriller noir, was part of this year's Cannes Film Festival Official Selection and has its national premiere at this year’s LEFFEST.