Sergei Loznitsa

Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa was born on September 5th 1964. He grew up in Kiev, and in 1987, graduated from Kiev Polytechnic University with a degree in Applied Mathematics. Between 1987 and 1991 Sergei worked as a scientist at the Kiev Institute of Cybernetics, specialising in artificial intelligence research. He also worked as a translator specialised in Japanese. In 1997 Loznitsa graduated from the Russian State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in Moscow, where he studied feature filmmaking. Since 1996, Sergei Loznitsa has directed 16 documentary films since the start of his career. He has received numerous international awards, including festival prizes in Karlovy Vary, Leipzig, Oberhausen, Krakow, Paris, Madrid, Toronto, Jerusalem, St-Petersburg, as well as the Russian National Film awards “Nika” and “Laurel”. Sergei Loznitsa’s montage film Blockade (2005) is based on the archive footage of besieged Leningrad. Loznitsa’s feature debut My Joy (2010) premiered in the main competition at the Festival de Cannes, and was followed by In the Fog, which premiered in the competition of the 65th Festival de Cannes in May 2012, where it was awarded the FIPRESCI prize. In 2013, he launched a film production and distribution company called ATOMS & VOID. Sergei continues to work in both documentary and feature genres. His feature length documentary Maidan, dedicated to the revolution in Ukraine, was premiered at the Festival de Cannes 2014 whilst his last two movies, A Gentle Creature and Donbass, have received awards at the Cannes Film Festival 2017 and 2018.