Andrey Zvyagintsev

Andrey Petrovich Zvyagintsev (, ; born 6 February 1964) is a Russian filmmaker. His film '' The Return'' (2003) won him a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Following ''The Return'', Zvyagintsev directed '' The Banishment'' (2007) and '' Elena'' (2011). His film '' Leviathan'' (2014) was nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film in 2014 and won the Best Film award at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. His most recent film '' Loveless'' won the Jury Prize at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, and was among the nominees for Best International Feature Film at the 90th Academy Awards. He also won the Achievement in Directing award for this film at the 2017 Asia Pacific Screen Awards.

Life and career

Zvyagintsev was born in Novosibirsk, Siberia. At the age of 20 in 1984, he graduated from the theater school in Novosibirsk as an actor. Since 1986, he has lived in Moscow where he continued his studies at the Russian Institute of Theatre Arts until 1990. From 1992 to 2000, he worked as an actor for film and theater. In 2000, he began to work for the TV station REN TV and directed three episodes of the television series ''The Black Room''.

He directed his first feature film '' The Return'' (2003), which received several awards, including a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. His second feature film '' The Banishment'' (2007) premiered at its year's Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for a Palme d'Or.

'' Elena'' (2011), again premiered at Cannes, in the Un Certain Regard section, receiving the festival's Jury Prize. The same year it won the Grand Prix at Film Fest Gent.

'' Leviathan'' (2014) was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or in the main competition section for its year at Cannes, where Zvyagintsev and Oleg Negin won the award for Best Screenplay for the film. ''Leviathan'' won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. It also won the award for Best Film at the 8th Asia Pacific Screen Awards. In 2015, Zvyagintsev was a jury president of the 18th Shanghai International Film Festival.

His most recent film, '' Loveless'' (2017), won the Jury Prize at Cannes in May 2017. It later won the Best Film at the 2017 London Film Festival, making him the second director to have won the award twice, having previously been honored for ''Leviathan''. In November 2017, the film won three awards at the Golden Unicorn Awards in London: Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Actress. ''Loveless'' was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. Zvyagintsev won the Achievement in Directing award at the 11th Asia Pacific Screen Awards for ''Loveless''. In March 2018, ''Loveless'' won the César Award for Best Foreign Film, making Zvyagintsev the first Russian director to have won this award. In 2018, Zvyagintsev was a jury member of the Cannes Film Festival.

In 2023 it was announced that he is working on his next project titled ''Jupiter'', about an oligarch, and is planning on shooting in spring 2024 in Europe.

Personal life

Andrei Zvyantsev's first wife was the actress Irina Grinyova; the two divorced after six years of marriage. His second wife is the film editor Anna Matveeva. They have a son, Pyotr (born 2009).

Illness

In June 2021, Zvyagintsev received the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, but he developed a high fever and was taken to the hospital, where he was admitted to intensive care. During his hospital stay, he developed sepsis from an antibiotic-resistant infection contracted there. He was put into an artificial coma in a German hospital, but afterward developed polyneuropathy that caused him to lose the ability to walk. For an extended period as well, he could neither sit up nor speak. In the hospital, his throat ligaments had been injured, and as late as May 2022, he was still undergoing treatment at a hospital in Wiesbaden, Germany. However, by the end of 2023, now residing in France, Zvyagintsev was preparing to shoot a film entitled Jupiter in the coming year.

Filmography

* ''The Black Room'' (TV series, 2000)
* '' The Return'' (2003)
* '' The Banishment'' (2007)
* '' New York, I Love You'' ("Apocrypha" segment, 2009) – segment cut from theatrical release
* '' Experiment 5IVE'' ("Mystery" segment, 2011)
* '' Elena'' (2011)
* '' Leviathan'' (2014)
* '' Loveless'' (2017)

In popular culture

In Russian dark comedy series '' The Last Minister'' Alexander Gorchilin plays an alternate reality version of Zvyagintsev who's kidnapped by a secret government agency and forced to make a sequel to ''Leviathan'' as part of a psyop to bolster Russia's reputation as world's bleakest and scariest country.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Zvyagintsev, Andrey
1964 births
Living people
People from Novosibirsk
Academicians of the National Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of Russia
Russian Academy of Theatre Arts alumni
Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Screenplay winners
César Award winners
Directors of Golden Lion winners
European Film Awards winners (people)
Recipients of the Nika Award
Russian male screenwriters
Russian film directors
Russian screenwriters
Asia Pacific Screen Award winners