Biography

Florin Serban was born in 1975 in Resita, Romania. He studied Philosophy and has an MA in Philosophy of Culture and Hermeneutics from Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca. He studied film directing in Bucharest at U.N.A.T.C, received a BFA, and later moved to the US. He graduated from Columbia University in NYC with an MFA in Film Directing. With his first feature film, "If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle", he received Grand Jury Prize at 2010 Berlinale together with Alfred Bauer Prize for Innovation in Cinema.
- IMDb mini biography by: Florin Serban

[on opening an acting school in Bucharest] I started The Acting School four years ago. It is a personal project, very dear to me. It is partially funded through tuition from people that can afford to pay it, and by me, for people that couldn't afford tuition but have something 'going on,' like Rafael [actor Rafael Florea]. People from various backgrounds attend classes, spanning from ex-cons to established actors in the same class. So, it is not only for people that didn't study acting in an institute, but for people who want to study film acting in a different way. More direct, more visceral, very intuitive, without so much 'compromise' and 'protection.' They learn from me and from each other.[2015]

Mixing actors that studied in an academic environment with people that studied in my school and people who didn't study acting at all was not programmed. I have stories to tell and I try to find the best way to tell that particular story... I try to work with people that strike me as faces, and [have] ways of acting regardless of their educational or personal background.[2015]