As a writer/ director, I am currently in post-production with my second short film ‘Cherry Master’ as well as developing my debut feature film, ‘Body Territory’, partly financed by the Romanian Film Center and presented at European co-production markets.
My pivot to filmmaking comes after releasing a slew of recordings and touring the globe as an electronic music producer for more than 15 years.
Recent projects include music for theater projects such as ‘Oedipus Rex’ for Teatro Greco di Siracusa (dir. Robert Carsen) and compositions for contemporary dance such as ‘Oh Captain’ by Johnny McMillan for Staatsballet Berlin among others. My music has been commisioned for BMW, YZY x GAP x Balenciaga and has featured on Theo Montoya’s Anhell69 as well Radu Jude’s Do Not Expect Much From the End of the World.
CHERRY MASTER
>SHORT FILM, 15:402025
Young Chinese migrant worker Lin navigates nocturnal Bucharest. Punctuated by voice messages from his mother, Lin’s journey takes him from exploring a wild swamp in the heart of the city, to his night shift at a dry cleaner, and finally to a seedy speakeasy where he tries his luck at the slot machines. An encounter with seasoned gambler Vali and his son Edi propels Lin’s miniature odyssey toward a tragic end.
A film by: Cosmin Nicolae
Director of Photography: Tudor Panduru
Editor: Cătălin Cristuțiu
Costumes and Set Design: Mălina Ionescu
Sound Design: Alex Dragomir / Raza Studios
Grading: Andu Radu / Abator
Producer: Velvet Moraru, Ioana Moraru / ICON PRODUCTION
With Feihong Basigu, Alexandru Potocean, Eric Savin, Vasilica Dănilă, Zhao Haiyan
EDIPO REDUX
Commissioned by the BETA Timișoara Architecture Biennale, 2025Curator: Oana Stănescu
WRITER + DIRECTOR: C. NICOLAE
DP: DRAGOȘ HANCIU
In 1967, Pier Paolo Pasolini ventured into Romania, seeking a primordial, archaic setting for his adaptation of Oedipus Rex. A country undergoing rapid industrialization, Romania nonetheless offered glimpses of the raw, untamed world Pasolini yearned for. The filmmaker left with a collection of music curated by the Institute for Ethnomusicology in Bucharest and released by Electrecord in 1962, which was used, almost in its entirety, as the soundtrack for the film that was eventually shot in Morocco.
There is ample ambiguity in the rhythm and language of Romanian traditional folk music, marked by indefinable traces of Arab, Slavic and Ancient Greek tonalities. In his words, “They are a little out of history. I wanted to have ahistorical, timeless music.” Edipo Re:dux is a speculative location scouting that invites viewers to contemplate a “what if ” of cinematic history.
It interrogates the relationship between landscape and narrative, the role of place in shaping expression and the cultural memory. A series of vignettes interspersed with film footage form an invitation to a spectral journey, a cinematic rite of transition between a nebulous, mythical past and a hyperreal present. Engaging with the frugality of its scenery, Edipo Re:dux pays homage to Pasolini’s transcendent poetics.
BERLIMINAL
>SHORT FILM, HD, 15:06 2021
Landscape is an expression of the dominant political power. Urban spaces define human behaviour, relations and social imaginary. Surfaces, textures, striae, layers, grooves, scratches, grain - there is information and affect in peripheral grounds. Berliminal is viscous media.
Photography, editing, score by C. Nicolae
STREAM ON VIMEO
MUSIC
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