Andreea is a film director who works transdisciplinary. She teaches in the Department of Screenings: Filmology of the National University of Theatre and Cinematography “I.L.Caragiale” and is the co-founder of “Pustnik”, the longest-running international journalism residency in Romania, a laboratory framework where she experiments at the level of the methodology of narrative development for cinema. It uses film as a sensory environment to create projects and narratives that speak of the origins of our minds, communities or nature. Her first feature film, A River’s Gaze, will be released in theaters later this year and will be part of a trilogy currently in the production stage.
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The Hollywood Reporter – Neon has acquired North American and multiple international rights for the English-language debut of the Romanian director Cristian Mungiu, which re-teams the actors from ‘A Different Man.’
Neon has picked up rights for North America, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand for Fjord, the English-language debut of Palme d’Or-winning Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days), starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve. Neon plans to release the film theatrically in the U.S..
The re-teaming of Stan and Reinsve, who co-starred in A Different Man, is a family drama focused on the Gheorghiu family, made up of a Romanian father (Stan) and a Norwegian mother (Reinsve), who relocate to a remote village in the mother’s homeland. They quickly form a close bond with the neighboring Halberg family. But when troubling allegations surface, the Gheorghius find themselves at the center of a small-town reckoning.
Stan is coming off a best actor Oscar nomination for playing Donald Trump in Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice and a reprisal of his role as Bucky in the MCU in Thunderbolts*.
Fjord has just wrapped production in Norway. Goodfellas is handling worldwide sales. The project is one of the hot titles at this year’s Cannes film market. The deal was negotiated by Sarah Colvin on behalf of Neon and Eva Diederix for Goodfellas.
Mungiu, a Cannes mainstay, has previously received the festival’s top honors, including the Palme d’Or for 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, best director for Graduation, and best screenplay for Beyond the Hills.
Neon, still enjoying the post-Oscar glow from Sean Baker’s best picture winner Anora, which won the Palme d’Or in Cannes last year, has several titles from this year’s festival lineup on its slate, including Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, Julia Ducournau’s Alpha, Raoul Peck’s Orwell: 2+2=5, and Michael Angelo Covino’s Splitsville.
Stan is represented by Brookside Artists Management, CAA, Sloan Offer Weber and Relevant. Reinsve is repped by CAA and Narrative.
Sebastian Stan (Thunderbolts) and Leo Woodall (The White Lotus) are set to star in Burning Rainbow Farm, the new film from The Order’s Justin Kurzel, on which we were first to report last December.
Rocket Science is preparing to introduce the project to international buyers at Cannes, with CAA Media Finance repping North American distribution rights.
An adaptation of the book by Dean Kuipers, penned by Tommy Murphy (Holding the Man), Burning Rainbow Farm tells the true story of Tom Crosslin and Rollie Rohm, a couple in rural Michigan who build a peaceful, pot-friendly utopia called Rainbow Farm. When the two run afoul of local authorities and their young son is taken from them, a standoff ensues leading to one of the largest and most dramatic sieges America has ever seen.
“Burning Rainbow is a love story about two outliers who raise their middle finger to hate and declare ‘This is who we are, and we dare you to take it from us’,” said Kurzel. “I’m excited to create this loveable and courageous couple with Sebastian and Leo, their union will be one to remember.”
The film will be produced by Nicole O’Donohue, Kurzel, and Alexandra Taussig for Thirdborn, along with Adam Shulman of Anonymous Content, Alix Madigan of Mad Dog Films, and Justin Lothrop and Brent Stiefel of Votiv.
Coming off of his first Oscar nomination for The Apprentice, Stan can currently be seen starring in Marvel’s Thunderbolts*, which since last week has grossed over $173M worldwide. He is represented by CAA, Brookside Artist Management, and Sloane Offer.
For Woodall, recent projects have included series Prime Target and One Day, as well as Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy for Peacock. He is repped by WME, Hamilton Hodell, Anonymous Content, and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman.
Garnering strong reviews for his true-crime thriller The Order, starring Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, and Tye Sheridan, Kurzel also recently directed on and exec produced The Narrow Road to the Deep North, starring Jacob Elordi and Odessa Young, and is repped by HLA Management and Sloane Offer.
Murphy is repped by Cameron’s Management and Range Media Partners.
Sebastian Stan still has plenty of XOXO’s for this Gossip Girl alum.
While reflecting on the show’s 19th anniversary, the 42-year-old detailed which of the show’s original cast—which included Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Penn Badgley, Chase Crawford and more—he still keeps in touch with.
“I talk to Chase a lot,” Sebastian told E! News’ Will Marfuggi in an exclusive interview at the Thunderbolts Los Angeles premiere April 28. “I knew him before Gossip Girl so we stayed close. Penn Badgley, I did his podcast at one point—but really Chase.”
And as Sebastian reprises his role of Bucky Barnes for Marvel’s Thunderbolts, which hits theaters May 2, he admitted that his superhero could hold his own against Chase’s The Boys character, The Deep—but he wouldn’t want to put his theory to the test.
“We could also just laugh it out,” he joked. “He’s just brilliant.” (For more from Sebastian and the Thunderbolts cast, tune into E! News tonight, April 29, at 11 p.m.)
All jokes aside, the Marvel star was committed to doing as many stunts as he could for the new movie, which also stars Florence Pugh and David Harbour, which proved to be a difficult undertaking.
“We just don’t have as much time as we used to in preparing,” he admitted. “It’s a little bit like, ‘hurry up and learn it and let’s do it.’”
And The Apprentice star noted that he is starting to feel the toll of getting older.
“That’s really tough,” he continued. “And mentally you’re still like ‘I can do it.’” Still, Sebastian wouldn’t change a thing about how he prepared for the film.
“It’s nice to have a challenge,” he added. “It’s nice to kind of be able to keep coming back to it. The fear and the adrenaline and the excitement kind of blend in together and by the end it’s all fun.”
As he put it, “As long as I can get in there a little bit, I’m grateful.”
Shortly after the star-studded Avengers: Doomsday lineup was announced on March 26, Sebastian Stan received a text from an old Marvel pal.
While speaking at a recent press junket for the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe film, Thunderbolts*, Stan, 42, shared the message he received from his The Falcon and the Winter Soldier costar Anthony Mackie. Mackie portrays Sam Wilson/The Falcon while Stan plays Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier.
“I got a text that went, ‘What’s up player’ and I was like, um ‘Not much. How are you?’ ” Stan said, impersonating Mackie, 46, with a laugh.
“And he was like, ‘When you come in, where are you staying at?’ And I was like, uh, ‘I don’t know yet, Anthony. I don’t have my place yet,’ ” Stan added, saying his costar and friend responded with, “Don’t be like that.”
The two have co-starred in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier. More recently, they reprised their respective superhero roles in the 2021 Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. At the end of the series, Wilson assumes the role of Captain America from Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers following the events of Avengers: Endgame.
When asked recently by Variety if he would appear in Captain America: Brave New World (Stan makes a brief cameo), Stan noted that he has been preoccupied filming Thunderbolts*.
“[Filming] Thunderbolts*, let me tell you, it was a much quieter year for me because I didn’t see Anthony Mackie,” the actor teased. “So, I’ll say that. Although I miss Anthony Mackie like daily, and it’s something I don’t like to admit.”
As for what Stan thinks of his latest Marvel project, the actor also shared with PEOPLE of the Thunderbolts* cast, “I knew that it was gonna be great just because we all got along.”
“You’re putting a new bunch of people together that you haven’t really tested out before. It’s different when you’re bringing people back and you know their strengths together,” Stan said. “But here we sort of had to figure it out and they were open to that.”
The Thunderbolts are comprised of Stan as Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Hannah John-Kamen as Ava Starr/Ghost, David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian, Olga Kurylenko as Antonio Dreykov/Taskmaster and Wyatt Russell as John Walker/U.S. Agent. Julia Louis-Dreyfus also stars as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, the woman who gathers them together.
Sebastian Stan’s journey to Hollywood isn’t your typical success story. He didn’t grow up in Los Angeles or come from a family in the business. Instead, his story starts in Romania – under a strict government, in a country still dealing with the impact of Communism. From there, he made his way to the United States, built a career on taking risks, and became one of the unique and respected actors in the industry.
Sebastian’s early life was filled with uncertainty. His father, Constantin Stan, worked on cargo ships and secretly helped people escape from Romania, where the government kept a tight grip on its citizens. “He was a bit of a hero in my town,” Sebastian told Vanity Fair in a recent interview. “My parents were part of the youth that were standing up to Communism. My father was helping people escape the country illegally, to the point where he was a wanted man. And he himself had to flee.”
Eventually, his father disappeared completely, going into exile in the United States. Sebastian stayed behind with his mother, Georgeta Orlovschi, a pianist. She first fled to Vienna to get settled, then brought Sebastian to join her. Not long after, they moved to the US to start over.
Even after all these years, Romania is still a big part of who Sebastian is. Growing up under a harsh government taught him to be aware of power and how it can be misused – something he still thinks about today in his life in America. He also understands the immigrant experience in a personal way. “I have always made the argument that immigrants, to some extent, are more patriotic than even the people that are born here because they don’t take things for granted,” he said in his Vanity Fair interview.
Sebastian’s acting career didn’t take off right away. He didn’t fit the usual Hollywood image, but that worked in his favour. He started taking on roles that were a little different – more complex, darker, and sometimes even a bit strange. From Bucky Barnes in the ‘Captain America’ films, to his performances in ‘I, Tonya’, ‘Pam and Tommy’, and ‘Fresh’, he’s always chosen characters that are interesting and unexpected.
In 2024, he gave the people two big films – ‘A Different Man’ and ‘The Apprentice’. For the first film, he received a Golden Globe for Best Actor. For the second one, he became an Oscar-nominated actor.
After years of hard work and quietly building an impressive career, Sebastian is finally getting the attention he deserves. In 2025, he was honoured at the Golden Globes, a moment that felt long overdue for fans and critics alike.
For a long time, Sebastian Stan was best known as Bucky Barnes – the Winter Soldier – in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). His work across the ‘Captain America’ films and beyond earned him a loyal fan base, but let’s be honest: most of the spotlight was on Chris Evans as Captain America. And fair enough – Evans nailed that role and became the face of a franchise.
But that often meant Stan didn’t get quite the credit he deserved. His version of Bucky was intense, emotional, and complex – a man struggling with trauma, guilt, and identity. It wasn’t just a supporting role; it was a masterclass in subtle, layered acting.
And outside of Marvel? Stan’s really shown what he’s capable of. He’s taken on a wide range of roles, proving he’s not just a superhero sidekick but a seriously talented lead. In ‘I, Tonya’, he transformed into Jeff Gillooly with both awkwardness and edge. In ‘Pam and Tommy’, he completely disappeared into the role of Tommy Lee. Then there’s the twisted charm of ‘Fresh’, the creepy intensity of ‘The Devil All the Time’, and the quiet mystery of ‘We Have Always Lived in the Castle’.
He’s also not afraid to take risks. Whether he’s playing a real-life figure like Donald Trump in ‘The Apprentice’, or diving into dark, psychologically challenging roles, Stan always brings a level of depth and commitment that makes you sit up and pay attention.
Sebastian Stan didn’t follow the traditional path to stardom. He carved out his own path, breaking through cultural and industry expectations along the way. His story is a powerful reminder that where you start doesn’t have to define where you end up – and that being different can be your biggest strength.
Russell says his background in sports fueled his desire for the movie to be so good that it proves doubters wrong: “I want to make you eat your words.”
There’s a scene in Jake Schreier’s Thunderbolts* where Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes ruins an illusion that Wyatt Russell’s John Walker has been trying to uphold. Walker proceeds to give such a vulnerable look to Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova that you might find yourself reevaluating how you feel about the disgraced former Captain America from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Disney+ series. It’s one of the many unexpected moments in, arguably, Marvel Studios’ most unexpected superhero tale to date.
Stan and Russell recently sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to discuss some of the other unanticipated components of the film, starting with Congressman Barnes, something that was first set up in Captain America: Brave New World. Bucky visited the new Captain America, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), at a moment when he needed his friend most, and the then-former Winter Soldier had to cut their reunion short due to a “stupid” campaign fundraiser.
Well, Thunderbolts* picks back up with Bucky now elected and known as Congressman Barnes, and Stan likens his role to a retired athlete who is brought back by their most tenured team to serve as an ambassador. They don’t have a major impact on the team’s day-to-day, but it makes fans feel good to see their past icons hanging around still. However, as Thunderbolts’ marketing campaign reveals in the form of Stan’s homage to Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Bucky can only put the (non-brainwashed) Winter Soldier on ice for so long.
“He’s also had his own suspicions about [Julia Louis-Dreyfus’] Valentina, so I think [congress] is his way of trying to, in the legal and moral way, keep track of her. And then he realizes, ‘I can just do this in my way, the way that I’ve always done it [as The Winter Soldier],’” Stans tells THR in support of Thunderbolts’ May 2 theatrical release.
In December 2023, Russell teased to THR that Thunderbolts* would not be your tried-and-true Marvel superhero film, and it’s now come to light that the film is genuinely about mental health. Louis-Dreyfus’ CIA director, Valentine Allegra de Fontaine, has positioned a number of MCU loners and rejects — such as Yelena, Walker, Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) and newcomer “Bob” (Lewis Pullman) — to kill each other for her own nefarious reasons. But they instead decide to team up in response to the obvious setup.
Along the way, each antihero is forced to confront the most unpleasant corners of their mind, and Russell, as a former accomplished hockey player, was eager to disprove anyone who wrote Thunderbolts* off as just another superhero team-up.
“We came to this as a group of people who were like, ‘Let’s make this our own thing, let’s make it great and let’s make people put their foot in their mouths,’” Russell says. “I have a little bit of an athletic background, so I was like, ‘Yeah, I want to make you eat your words if you’re like, “This movie’s going to blow, I don’t want to go see it.”’”
Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Stan and Russell also discuss the highly collaborative nature of the Thunderbolts set.
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Apr
21
For photos from this interview click here: Session #61 – Norman Jean Roy
This windblown Monday in late February would have been his late father’s 70th birthday, and before the day is gone, he is determined to light a candle and say a prayer in the old man’s memory at a place that had meaning for them both. Stan was born and raised in Romania, where faith and superstition became rooted together for him. “Whenever I’m in a church, I have to go like this three times,” he says, making the sign of the cross with his right hand. “I have to do it. And I have to do it three times before I get on a plane.”
Just before we arrived at this Southern California church in pursuit of the sacred, Stan was indulging the profane. Is there another way to describe an encounter with a remote-controlled talking penis? The actor is based in New York, so when he visits LA, as he’s doing now to attend the Academy Awards, he has a full to-do list. Today, that includes a visit to the makeup studio Autonomous FX, which won an Emmy for transforming Stan and Lily James into Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson for the Hulu series Pam & Tommy. The whole day is a microcosm of what has established Stan as one of the more daring and endearing actors working today. He thinks deeply but has a wild side too.
We’ll get back to the robo-penis later.
It’s getting late, and Stan has to hurry through rush-hour traffic to get right with God for his father’s birthday. The Biserica Ortodox? Român? Sfânta Treime (or Holy Trinity Romanian Orthodox Church) that he wants to visit to light the tribute to his father is meaningful to the Romanian immigrants who founded it, but it’s no soaring cathedral. It’s tiny, a single-story white stucco structure with a squat steeple that’s hidden behind much taller trees. Across the street is the headquarters of the Bilt-Well Roofing company, which is a comparatively much bigger operation.
Stan left Romania more than three decades ago, but it’s still a core part of him. So is the uncertainty of growing up in a place where the government dominated and demoralized its own citizens—which makes him especially attuned to authoritarianism in his adopted country of the United States. His old accent is gone, of course. Few who have seen him onscreen as the Winter Soldier in a decade and a half of Marvel movies—including the upcoming outcast team-up adventure Thunderbolts*—could find a trace of it. Stan’s character of Bucky Barnes is as all-American as his closest friend, Captain America. The character was a Brooklyn native, but Stan took on a neighboring Queens inflection for another famous (or infamous) performance, playing young Donald Trump in the scathing true-life drama The Apprentice. The role earned him both a best-actor Oscar nomination this year and the enduring rage of a vengeful, unchecked president.
New faces and new voices were exactly what drew Stan to acting in high school. He moved to the US in the 1990s, and—as an immigrant kid still struggling to adapt to the language and culture—it was a lot more fun to be Bum Number Two in a production of Little Shop of Horrors than it was to be himself. “I just remember how fun it was to try to change everything,” he says.
Being onstage turned a shy kid into a scene-stealing extrovert— and he was good at it. His mother sent him to summer theater camp not far from their new home just outside New York City, and by the end of high school, he was being cast as the lead in Cyrano de Bergerac. He was a good-looking kid, but he still loved hiding his face beneath Cyrano’s oversized nose. “You’re dress ing up, you’re putting on fake beards, you’re walking differently, you’re changing,” he tells me. “You take big swings. You take bigger swings than you do when you’re a young actor coming to LA to go on pilot season auditions and they try to cast you as yourself—and you’re only allowed to play yourself.”