A lawyer in his native country, he moved to the USA and graduated from Columbia University with a dual MFA degree in film directing and cinematography. Before Outbound, he directed and produced a series of short films that were selected by many prominent festivals and garnered several awards in the process, culminating in a 2006 Student Academy Awards nomination. In addition to directing, Apetri recently co-produced Eric Mendelsohn’s 3 Backyards and Florin Serban’s Emigrant.