Victor Kossakovsky is an innovative documentary filmmaker whose films have been honored with more than 100 awards at national and international festivals. His distinctive filmography ranges widely in subject matter but always explores the interplay between reality and poetic moments.
He began his career in motion pictures at the Leningrad Studio of Documentaries as assistant cameraman, assistant director and editor at 1978. He studied screenwriting and directing at Moscow HCSF 1986-1988. In 1989 he directed his first feature Losev and in 1992 his most famous documentary The Belovs, which won both the VPRO Joris Ivens Award and the Audience Award at IDFA and dozens of other awards at international festivals around the world. In 2011, Kossakovsky’s ¡Vivan Las Antipodas! was selected as the opening film of the Venice Film Festival.
In many of his films, like Aquarela, Kossakovsky has worked simultaneously as director, editor, cinematographer and writer. He continues to work as a teacher and mentor of aspiring filmmakers and documentary makers globally. Gunda, produced by Joaquin Phoenix, is his latest film, premiered at the Berlinale 2020.
