He was discovered by Cristi Puiu who cast him in a leading role in Stuff and Dough/Marfa si banii. He worked with Radu Muntean for his first three features Rage/Furia, The Paper Will Be Blue/Hartia va fi albastra and Boogie. In 2008, Corneliu Porumboiu cast him in Police, Adjectiv/Politist, adjectiv (Jury Prize and FIPRESCI Prize in Cannes 2009), giving Bucur international recognition. Recently, Bucur recently worked in his first international project, The Way Back, by Peter Weir, with actors Ed Harris, Colin Farrell, Jim Sturgess, Gustaf Skarsgård, Sebastian Urzendowsky, Saoirse Ronan and another young Romanian actor, Alex Potocean.

Born in 1977, Bucur studied at the National University of Drama and Film in Bucharest, where he also taught acting classes. He worked in theater after university, but stopped to set up a casting agency with his friends and later a club where he has begun managing film related events. He also appears in occasional TV productions in Romania. However, Bucur is primarily identified with the Romanian New Wave films. He told FNE that he likes to work with 3-4 directors he knows well, although he added, "But if I would have done it this way, I wouldn't discovered any of the directors I've worked so well with. I also think that faith gives you what you need when you need it. Proof of that is the fact I came to work with Peter Weir even before beginning to wish for it."

Although he likes movie acting for the freedom he gets, he treats it like "a job" with "rules, schedules, advantages and disadvantages...," but appreciates it far more for the pleasure of doing it. Asked what are his expectations from Shooting Stars programme, he said frankly, "More than just being there, there is nothing I can do. I don't believe or, better say, I don't like to build my career on relationships made in restaurants - not even in a festival like Berlin - but on solid relationships, born and certified on the set."