The “Teambuilding” phenomenon returns to the big screen: Teambuilding 2 opens in cinemas nationwide today
After the first film drew more than one million cinema admissions, Horia and the gang return for another encounter with the absurdities of office life. Four years after its release, Teambuilding ranks first among the favourite Romanian films named by respondents in a Vidra Productions study.
The comedy that turned office rivalries into a cinema phenomenon returns with a new adventure. Teambuilding 2 opens today, October 6, in cinemas nationwide, four years after the first film drew more than one million cinema admissions. Horia, Emil, Lorena and their colleagues return to a world where artificial intelligence promises to revolutionise work, Generation Z challenges the rules of the game, and the company responds to every challenge with the solution it knows best: another team-building retreat.
Their return reflects a connection with audiences that extends beyond box-office success. In a Vidra Productions analysis of feedback from 3,305 cinemagoers, Teambuilding was the title most frequently mentioned in response to a question about their favourite Romanian film of recent years. Of the 2,906 respondents who named a film, 12.4% mentioned Teambuilding, even though the questionnaires were completed after screenings of other productions.
Directed by Letiția Roșculeț and produced by Vidra Productions, Teambuilding 2 takes the adventure to a winery resort in the Republic of Moldova. Cosmin Nedelcu – Micutzu, Matei Dima and Anca Dinicu reprise their roles as Horia, Emil and Lorena in a competition where egos, generational differences and a troubled technology project threaten to turn team cohesion into total chaos.
“At the premiere, I was delighted to hear people talking about situations in the film that reminded them of their own jobs. Everyone recognises a different colleague, a different conversation, a different moment they have experienced. That is where the connection with the characters comes from. We wanted to preserve that familiarity and see what happens to Horia and the gang in a world with new pressures and expectations,” says Matei Dima, the film’s screenwriter and producer.
A new retreat, the same egos
In Teambuilding 2, Horia and his colleagues are trying to sell an innovative product. The project has big ambitions, but the product does not quite work as it should. Their boss, Oprea, played by Șerban Pavlu, decides that the team needs to become more cohesive and sends them on another team-building retreat.
This time, the destination is the Republic of Moldova, where the Bucharest colleagues compete against a team from Transylvania and a team of young Gen Z employees. Each group brings its own style, ambitions and very clear views on how things should be done. The challenges force them to work together, while their rivalries give them plenty of reasons to forget their shared goal.
The story starts from a reality many people recognise: the way we work is changing faster than we can adapt. Technology promises solutions, younger colleagues have different expectations, and companies still try to bring everyone together through meetings, presentations and group activities.
Horia returns with the experience of his first adventure and the confidence that he already knows how things work. But the new retreat puts him in situations where his old instincts are not always enough.
“It makes me laugh when someone comes up after a screening and tells me they have a Horia at work. My immediate instinct is to ask what that person does. At the premiere, I enjoyed hearing what each person recognised in him. Horia thinks he knows how things work and can handle any situation. He is especially fun to play when the situation starts showing him that he still has things to learn,” says Micutzu.
A lasting connection with audiences
Released in 2022, the first Teambuilding changed expectations of how commercially successful a Romanian comedy could be, passing one million tickets sold after 16 weeks in cinemas. Endless meetings, corporate jargon and rivalries between departments became the material for a story in which audiences recognised their colleagues, bosses and personal experiences.
Four years later, the Vidra Productions analysis suggests that this connection has endured. Teambuilding tops the list of titles spontaneously named as favourite Romanian films, with 361 respondents mentioning it, including 302 who named it as their sole favourite.
The data comes from questionnaires completed after screenings of Situationship, Dragoste la Țară and Tati Full-Time. Respondents therefore recalled Teambuilding while reflecting on a different film they had just watched. Among respondents who had seen Situationship, the proportion naming Teambuilding as a favourite reached 19.2% — almost one in five.
The same analysis also highlights an appetite for Romanian comedy: 60.4% of the 3,305 respondents selected comedy among the genres of Romanian films they would like to see. This preference appeared across all age groups analysed, reaching 70.1% among those aged over 45.
For the sequel, the challenge was to turn the familiarity of the characters into a new story that could capture changes in the world of work and meet the expectations created by the first film.
“After the success of the first film, we knew people would come with high expectations. At the premiere, I was delighted to hear that they had reconnected with the characters they had missed and left discussing what had happened to them this time. For us, watching the film alongside an audience is a very emotional moment. After months of preparation, filming and post-production, the reactions in the cinema and the conversations after the screening give very tangible meaning to the work of the entire team,” says Alexandra Hash, the film’s producer.
Familiar colleagues, new rivalries
A new team-building retreat also brings new people into the picture, with different egos and different ideas about how to win a competition. In Teambuilding 2, generational differences add a new dimension to office rivalries. The familiar characters find new reasons to clash, while encounters with other teams make their differences in outlook even more apparent.
“I think each of us has a version of ourselves at work that tries to look in control, and another that comes out when things go off the rails. Exploring the gap between the two is very funny to me. On a team-building retreat, you spend enough time with your colleagues that keeping up appearances becomes increasingly difficult. Lorena also has moments when things come to the surface that she would keep to herself on an ordinary day at the office,” says Anca Dinicu.
The film is directed by Letiția Roșculeț, from a screenplay by Alex Coteț and Matei Dima. It is produced by Matei Dima and Alexandra Hash through Vidra Productions.
“I wanted the film to capture that tension you feel when things change faster than you can keep up. At work, it shows up in the fear of being replaced, the pressure to keep learning something new, and the way different generations come to regard one another with suspicion. The characters bring all these anxieties to the team-building retreat, where they are expected to collaborate and have fun. Much of the comedy comes from their attempts to seem relaxed, even though each of them has something to prove or defend,” says director Letiția Roșculeț.
Teambuilding 2 is in cinemas nationwide .
About the film
- Title: Teambuilding 2
- Genre: Comedy
- Running time: 110 minutes
- Rating: N15
- Director: Letiția Roșculeț
- Screenplay: Alex Coteț, Matei Dima
- Producers: Matei Dima, Alexandra Hash
- Production company: Vidra Productions
- Cast: Cosmin Nedelcu — Micutzu, Matei Dima, Anca Dinicu, Anca Munteanu, Vlad Ianuș, Nicu Banea, Șerban Pavlu, Ștefan Iancu, Bogdan Iancu and others
- Theatrical release: October 6, 2026
About the research: The Vidra Productions analysis, presented in September 2026, brings together 3,305 responses from feedback questionnaires completed between 2023 and 2026 by audiences of Situationship, Dragoste la Țară and Tati Full-Time. The open-ended question about respondents’ favourite Romanian film received 2,906 valid responses; the question about preferred genres allowed multiple answers. The results describe the preferences of the respondents and cannot be generalised to the population as a whole
