Romanian actress Maria Dinulescu has won the Best Actress Award at the LA Indie Film Festival for her appearance in the movie Stepping Out, directed by Ukrainian Nataliya Padilla.

The film won a second award – for best director, at the same indie film festival. The film producers plan to submit the film to the Short Film Corner section of the Canes Film Festival.

“It feels so good to see that all the efforts made in the past two years are beginning to bear fruit! Now I finished filming a new short film and I'm getting ready to start another one! Those are small steps, but in the direction I always wanted! It always feels good to be back to Cannes!,” said Maria Dinuescu, according to the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York.

Maria Dinulescu, who has played in 12 feature length movies and was main character in seven of them, studied acting at the National University of Cinema and Drama in Bucharest, Romania. She became known internationally in 2003, when one of the first shorts she played in, "Traffic", won the Palme d'Or in Cannes.

She was back to Cannes in 2007, as the lead actress in the feature length film "California Dreamin' (endless)," the winner of the "Un Certain Regard" section. She won other awards for her performance in this movie, including the Best Actress Prize at BIAF Georgia and Arte Mare from France.

Her newest movie Stepping Out shows the journey of a young woman, Maya, who was forced to spend the day in old person's skin to realize that what she had in front of her is what she wanted all time.

editor@romania-insider.com