In 2001, Bogdan George Apetri, a Romanian lawyer, moved to New York, where he attended the School of the Arts’ Film Program. In 2006, he graduated with an MFA degree in Film Directing. His student films screened and won awards at prominent short festivals across the world, and he was a national finalist at the Student Academy Awards in 2006.

Things have come full circle for Apetri, who is now a film professor at School of the Arts, where he runs the Directing Concentration in the film program. In 2010, he directed and wrote his first feature film, Outbound, which was shown at top international festivals (including Toronto and New Directors/New Films in New York) and won numerous awards. In 2020 came his second movie, Unidentified, followed, in 2021, by Miracle, which premiered at the Venice International Film Festival.

Columbia News caught up with Apetri recently to discuss the demands of both teaching filmmaking and directing films, along with his trajectory from Romania to New York, and what guidance he can offer to those interested in the film profession.

How did you transition from a criminal defense attorney in Romania to a film director and film professor at Columbia?

I get this question a lot. People assume there was a momentous change earlier in my life, or a major shift in my life goals. Quite the contrary: I knew before even passing the exam to enter law school that I wanted to be a film director. However, I was 18 years old at the time, and I thought it was way...

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