[4] He later became known as a director of action films,[5] including the Jet Li vehicles Romeo Must Die (2000) and Cradle 2 the Grave (2003), and the video game adaptations Doom (2005) and Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (2009).

After graduating, he moved to the United States and settled in New York City, where he worked as a cinematographer and director on dozens of television commercials and industrial films, for clients like IBM, Xerox, American Express, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, and Toyota.

[6] Bartkowiak made his directorial debut with Romeo Must Die, a martial arts action film starring Jet Li and Aaliyah, which grossed $91 million at the box office.

[citation needed] Later he teamed up with Ashok Amritraj's Hyde Park Entertainment and Capcom to direct Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li.

In 2017, he directed the Russian-American co-production film Maximum Impact, starring Alexander Nevsky, Kelly Hu, Mark Dacascos, Tom Arnold, and Danny Trejo.