Ioana Flora
- Actress
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Ioana Flora was born on March 22, 1975 in Pancevo, Serbia. She is the daughter of Ioan Flora, a poet, philologist and pedagogue.
Appearing in films, on television and on stage, she debuted in acclaimed Romanian director Cristi Puiu's Stuff and Dough/Marfa si banii, where she starred alongside Dragos Bucur and Alexandru Papadopol. It was the first Romanian picture selected for the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs program at Cannes in 2001 and was credited with starting the New Wave of Romanian cinema.
Recently, Ioana played the female lead in The Christmas Gift/Cadoul de Craciun, a short feature that is among the 10 live action shorts shortlisted for the 2020 Academy Awards. Directed by Bogdan Muresanu, the short film also received the Best Short Movie award at the European Film Awards in 2019.
She is a critical darling, with both Romanian and international film critics heaping praise and accolades on her for being "an intense and instinctive artist - who always captures nuances with amazing precision and burns on the inside while acting, insofar as she can carry a whole film by herself."
Ioana graduated acting with a BA from the National University of Theatre and Film in Bucharest, in 1997, and attended the Architecture High School in Novi Sad, Serbia before that. She studied piano and classical ballet and speaks fluent Romanian, Serbian and English.
Ioana's filmography counts as many as 25 national and international productions, both in cinema and TV, and she was the recipient of one of the most valued distinctions in the international film industry - the Best Actress Award that she won at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in 2008, for Adrian Sitaru's Hooked.
Her next movie role was in Outbound (2009), directed by Bogdan George Apetri, a film that was screened and awarded at important international festivals, most notably the Locarno Film Festival (Official Selection) and the Warsaw Film Festival, in 2010, where it won both the FIPRESCI and the Special Jury Prizes. For her part in the movie, Ioana received the Best Supporting Actress award at the Gopos in 2012, and was named "Artist of the Year" by Pro Cinema.
In 2010 she appeared in Bora Bora, directed by acclaimed director Bogdan Mirica, recipient of the FIPRESCI award in Cannes, in 2016, for Dogs.
An actress who some critics describe as being possessed of untold depths and a simmering strength that can explode at any point, Ioana was also one of the 20 actors chosen out of 4300 applicants, to take part in the Talent Actors Stage programme at Berlin IFF in 2012.
In 2012, director Adrian Sitaru offered her one of the leading roles in his movie, Domestic.
A very difficult role that earned her the Romanian Film Union Award (UCIN) for best female performance, in 2013, was the one from Déjà vu, an independent production directed by Dan Chisu. It is also worth noting that the jury of the Gala voted unanimously for Ioana Flora.
The actress then intricately molded yet another disturbing character in the Dutch-Romanian co-production A Long Story / Marea Neagra, a drama directed by Jorien Van Nes that was well received by the international film industry. For her part in the film, premiering in 2013, at the Dutch Film Festival in Utrecht, Ioana got the Best Actress Award the following year, at the International Film Festival in Aubagne, France.
For her next role, Paula, in Andrei Cohn's debut film Back Home / Acasa la tata, Ioana received her second Best Actress Award at the Gopos in 2016, as well as her second UCIN Prize. Back Home opened the European Film festival that year. That same year, Ioana appeared in One floor below/Un etaj mai jos, directed by Radu Muntean, a film that, once again, put Romanian cinema on the map when it was featured in the Official Cannes 2015 Selection, Un Certain regard.
Her next role was in the independent short, Tie/Scor alb, directed by Marius Olteanu. The film had its international premiere at the Busan Film festival, in competition.
Ioana's most recent on-screen performance was in the acclaimed short The Christmas Gift/Cadoul de Craciun, Bogdan's Muresanu debut film, that was shortlisted by the American Film Academy for the 2020 Oscars nominations for Best Live action short. Honored with 57 awards so far, including the Best Film Award at the Clermont Ferrant and Palm Springs Festivals, The Christmas Gift also took home the European Academy's Best Short Film Award in December 2019, in Berlin. Starring Ioana Flora and Adrian Vancica, the short directed by Bogdan Muresanu was among 9 other films on the short list, out of 191 eligible titles.
At the end of 2019, Ioana finished shooting for Lebensdorf, a feature film directed by Vali Hotea where the type of character she plays is quite different from her usual fare. Other recent productions Ioana stars in are Andrei Gruznitski's Zavera, which premiered at the end of 2019, at the Cairo Film Festival, and two features set to debut this year - Razvan Savescu's Beginning/ Inceput (2018), and Ruxandra Ghitescu's Otto the Barbarian/Otto barbarul (2018).
Of the series and TV films Ioana starred in, the most noteworthy are The Madness of Henry VIII docudrama, which aired on National Geographic, L'homme pressé, produced by TV France and directed by Sébastien Grall (2005), Good fellas/Baieti buni, an innovative police series for the Romanian market at the time (2003), which aired on PRO TV, Donau, Duna, Dunav, Dunarea, directed by Goran Rebic - a German-Austrian-Serbian-Romanian co-production - Poor man, rich man/Om sarac, om bogat, directed by Peter Kerek and broadcast by PRO TV, and the period TV series Aniela (2010), as well as made-for-TV films produced by Acasa TV, in 2010.
She made her theatre debut in Piatra Neamt, playing lead roles in Vlad Mugur's productions, and has been playing in state theatres, as well as in independent and nonconventional spaces ever since. She is currently playing Beatrice in a new production of Shakespeare's Much ado about nothing/Mult zgomot pentru nimic, directed by world-renowned director Andrei Serban.
When she's not acting, Ioana is directing and organizing performances for and with underprivileged children, teaching acting, public speaking and communication, as well as translating plays.
Recently, Ioana played the female lead in The Christmas Gift/Cadoul de Craciun, a short feature that is among the 10 live action shorts shortlisted for the 2020 Academy Awards. Directed by Bogdan Muresanu, the short film also received the Best Short Movie award at the European Film Awards in 2019.
She is a critical darling, with both Romanian and international film critics heaping praise and accolades on her for being "an intense and instinctive artist - who always captures nuances with amazing precision and burns on the inside while acting, insofar as she can carry a whole film by herself."
Ioana graduated acting with a BA from the National University of Theatre and Film in Bucharest, in 1997, and attended the Architecture High School in Novi Sad, Serbia before that. She studied piano and classical ballet and speaks fluent Romanian, Serbian and English.
Ioana's filmography counts as many as 25 national and international productions, both in cinema and TV, and she was the recipient of one of the most valued distinctions in the international film industry - the Best Actress Award that she won at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in 2008, for Adrian Sitaru's Hooked.
Her next movie role was in Outbound (2009), directed by Bogdan George Apetri, a film that was screened and awarded at important international festivals, most notably the Locarno Film Festival (Official Selection) and the Warsaw Film Festival, in 2010, where it won both the FIPRESCI and the Special Jury Prizes. For her part in the movie, Ioana received the Best Supporting Actress award at the Gopos in 2012, and was named "Artist of the Year" by Pro Cinema.
In 2010 she appeared in Bora Bora, directed by acclaimed director Bogdan Mirica, recipient of the FIPRESCI award in Cannes, in 2016, for Dogs.
An actress who some critics describe as being possessed of untold depths and a simmering strength that can explode at any point, Ioana was also one of the 20 actors chosen out of 4300 applicants, to take part in the Talent Actors Stage programme at Berlin IFF in 2012.
In 2012, director Adrian Sitaru offered her one of the leading roles in his movie, Domestic.
A very difficult role that earned her the Romanian Film Union Award (UCIN) for best female performance, in 2013, was the one from Déjà vu, an independent production directed by Dan Chisu. It is also worth noting that the jury of the Gala voted unanimously for Ioana Flora.
The actress then intricately molded yet another disturbing character in the Dutch-Romanian co-production A Long Story / Marea Neagra, a drama directed by Jorien Van Nes that was well received by the international film industry. For her part in the film, premiering in 2013, at the Dutch Film Festival in Utrecht, Ioana got the Best Actress Award the following year, at the International Film Festival in Aubagne, France.
For her next role, Paula, in Andrei Cohn's debut film Back Home / Acasa la tata, Ioana received her second Best Actress Award at the Gopos in 2016, as well as her second UCIN Prize. Back Home opened the European Film festival that year. That same year, Ioana appeared in One floor below/Un etaj mai jos, directed by Radu Muntean, a film that, once again, put Romanian cinema on the map when it was featured in the Official Cannes 2015 Selection, Un Certain regard.
Her next role was in the independent short, Tie/Scor alb, directed by Marius Olteanu. The film had its international premiere at the Busan Film festival, in competition.
Ioana's most recent on-screen performance was in the acclaimed short The Christmas Gift/Cadoul de Craciun, Bogdan's Muresanu debut film, that was shortlisted by the American Film Academy for the 2020 Oscars nominations for Best Live action short. Honored with 57 awards so far, including the Best Film Award at the Clermont Ferrant and Palm Springs Festivals, The Christmas Gift also took home the European Academy's Best Short Film Award in December 2019, in Berlin. Starring Ioana Flora and Adrian Vancica, the short directed by Bogdan Muresanu was among 9 other films on the short list, out of 191 eligible titles.
At the end of 2019, Ioana finished shooting for Lebensdorf, a feature film directed by Vali Hotea where the type of character she plays is quite different from her usual fare. Other recent productions Ioana stars in are Andrei Gruznitski's Zavera, which premiered at the end of 2019, at the Cairo Film Festival, and two features set to debut this year - Razvan Savescu's Beginning/ Inceput (2018), and Ruxandra Ghitescu's Otto the Barbarian/Otto barbarul (2018).
Of the series and TV films Ioana starred in, the most noteworthy are The Madness of Henry VIII docudrama, which aired on National Geographic, L'homme pressé, produced by TV France and directed by Sébastien Grall (2005), Good fellas/Baieti buni, an innovative police series for the Romanian market at the time (2003), which aired on PRO TV, Donau, Duna, Dunav, Dunarea, directed by Goran Rebic - a German-Austrian-Serbian-Romanian co-production - Poor man, rich man/Om sarac, om bogat, directed by Peter Kerek and broadcast by PRO TV, and the period TV series Aniela (2010), as well as made-for-TV films produced by Acasa TV, in 2010.
She made her theatre debut in Piatra Neamt, playing lead roles in Vlad Mugur's productions, and has been playing in state theatres, as well as in independent and nonconventional spaces ever since. She is currently playing Beatrice in a new production of Shakespeare's Much ado about nothing/Mult zgomot pentru nimic, directed by world-renowned director Andrei Serban.
When she's not acting, Ioana is directing and organizing performances for and with underprivileged children, teaching acting, public speaking and communication, as well as translating plays.
