ULDIS CEKULIS, Founder/Producer, VFS Films, Latvia

In 2007 Uldis Cekulis was named among seven filmmakers, selected for their creativity, innovation and personal vision in the world of documentary making, to receive International Trailblazer award at MIPDOC in Cannes. He has worked on almost 50 creative documentaries and author-driven prime time TV docu-series both as a producer and sometimes as a cameraman.

Recently his Lithuanian-Latvian-French coproduction ‘The Jump’ by Giedre Zickyte have received Best Documentary award at 36th Warsaw FF and Italian-Latvian coproduction ‘The Rossellinis’ by Alessandro Rossellini have premiered at 77th Venice IFF.

Besides being a member of the European Film Academy his other activities include tutoring at documentary workshops in Europe, Caucasus and Asia. He is currently working on four full-length documentary co-productions as well as on his first fiction and animation.

INSTITUTE PROFILE

VFS FILMS is an independent Latvian production company established in 1997 by Uldis Cekulis and best known for its human-interest documentaries, shorts and author-driven television docu-series. Four VFS co-productions have been selected as the official country entries for the Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film category from Lithuania and Ukraine.

Most of their produced films have travelled around the world and have received prestigious awards, including Shanghai IFF Golden Goblet (‘Bridges of Time’ by Audrius Stonys and Kristine Briede), Karlovy Vary IFF Crystal Globe (‘Immortal’, by Ksenia Okhapkina), Best Documentary award at Warsaw FF and Trieste FF (‘Wonderful Losers’, by Arunas Matelis), IDFA Special Jury prize (‘Ukrainian Sheriffs’, by Roman Bondarchuk), Best Documentary award at Latvia National Film Festival (‘Liberation Day’, by Morten Traavik and Ugis Olte) and European Film Academy nomination (‘Dream Land’ by Laila Pakalnina).