Kantemir Arturovich Balagov (russian: Кантемир Артурович Балагов, kbd, Бэлагъы Артурыкъуэ Къантемыр; born 28 July 1991) is a
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
film director of
Circassian descent, screenwriter and cinematographer from the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, in the North Caucasian region of the Russian Federation. He has directed the films ''
Closeness'' (2017) and ''
Beanpole'' (2019).
Biography
Balagov was born in
Nalchik,
Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
The Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was an autonomous republic of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic within the Soviet Union, and was originally a part of the Mountain Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. ...
,
RSFSR, in the final year of the Soviet Union, into a family with no connection to cinema. His mother chemistry and biology teacher who works as the head teacher at a local school, while his father is a local entrepreneur.
Since childhood, Balagov had been watching mainstream movies, and at the age of 18 began to create his own small videos. Then, together with friends in Nalchik, he shot an Internet series with episodes of 10 minutes each. He did not originally plan to pursue a career as a filmmaker, but decided to apply for the cinema workshop led by
Alexander Sokurov at
Kabardino-Balkarian State University in Nalchik. Balagov missed the deadline to enter the university as a freshman, but he still wrote to Sokurov asking Sokurov to consider his application. He eventually was accepted to the workshop as a third-year student. He graduated from university after studies in Sokurov's workshop. Directors
Kira Kovalenko,
Alexander Zolotukhin and
Vladimir Bitokov were his fellow students.
During his studies, he made several fiction and documentary films. Some of Balagov's short films were shown at the 67th
Locarno Festival
The Locarno Film Festival is an annual film festival, held every August in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, sh ...
. In 2017, he made his debut as a director with the feature film ''
Closeness'' in the program
Un Certain Regard
(, meaning 'a certain glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob.
The section presents 20 films w ...
at the
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...
, where he received the prize
FIPRESCI. In 2017, he was awarded the ''
GQ'' Russia Prize in the category Discovery of the Year.
In 2019, Balagov received the
Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Director
The Best Director Award (french: Prix de la mise en scène) is an award presented annually at the Cannes Film Festival since 1946. It is given for the best achievement in directing and is chosen by the International Jury from the films in the Co ...
and FIPRESCI prize for the film ''
Beanpole'', which was likewise presented in the program Un Certain Regard. ''Beanpole'' was Russia's entry for
Best International Feature Film at the
92nd Academy Awards
The 92nd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored films released in 2019 and took place on February 9, 2020, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, beginning at 5:00 p ...
, making the December shortlist.
In January 2021, Balagov was named as the director of the first episode of
''The Last of Us'' television adaptation. In October 2022, Balagov was announced that he left the project a year ago over creative differences. He did not direct the pilot, and his episode will not air.
When Russia
invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Balagov condemned the war and left Russia. Balagov and his girlfriend, another Russian director
Kira Kovalenko were chosen as Telluride Film Festival guest directors in September 2022.
References
External links
*
Балагову 27, а он снова на Каннском фестивале
{{DEFAULTSORT:Balagov, Kantemir
1991 births
Living people
People from Nalchik
Circassian people of Russia
Russian cinematographers
Russian film directors
Russian screenwriters
Russian activists against the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine