ULDIS CEKULIS, Founder/Director, VFS Films, Latvia

Uldis Cekulis created the independent production company VFS FILMS almost 20 years ago and later won the International Trailblazer Award at MIPDOC in Cannes, which recognises the best documentary filmmakers. He has worked on almost 50 creative documentaries and author-driven prime time TV projects both as a producer and sometimes as a cameraman. Most of his films such as ‘Roof on the Moonway’, ‘Theodore’, ‘The Deconstruction of an Artist’, ‘Double Aliens’, ‘Liberation Day’, ‘Bridges of Time’, ‘Immortal’ have travelled and received awards around the world. ‘Dreamland’, directed by Laila Pakalnina and produced by Cekulis, also received a nomination for the European Film Academy Documentary Award 2005. Two of his films, ‘Ramin’ by Audrius Stonys and ‘Wonderful Losers: A Different World’ by Arunas Matelis, were selected as the official Lithuanian entries to the Academy Awards for the Best Foreign Language Film in 2012 and 2018 respectively. ‘Ukrainian Sheriffs’, directed by Roman Bondarchuk, won the IDFA Special Jury Award in 2015 and was then selected as the official Ukrainian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards in 2016. Cekulis has co-produced documentaries with Ukrainian, Estonian, Lithuanian, Russian, German, Italian, French, Greek, Icelandic, Finnish, Norwegian and Georgian production companies. Besides being a member of European Film Academy he tutors at documentary workshops in Europe, Caucasus and Asia.

INSTITUTE PROFILE

VFS Films is a production company, based in Riga, Latvia, best known for telling human stories through award-winning full-length documentaries, shorts and author-driven television docu-series. Four of its films have been selected as the official entries to the Academy Awards for the Best Foreign Language Film. Currently, VFS Films is working on four full- length documentaries in co-production with Norway, Italy, France, Lithuania and USA, and its first fiction film project.