People
Andrey ZVYAGINTSEV
1Films
1Festival entries
Biography
Andrey Zvyagintsev was born in Novosibirsk, Russia, in 1964. He studied acting at GITIS (the Russian Institute of Theatre Arts) and worked as an actor before turning to directing in 2000. His feature debut, The Return (2003), made a stunning entrance onto the world film stage by winning the Golden Lion at Venice, while The Banishment (2007) earned the first-ever Best Actor award for a Russian artist at Cannes. Following Elena (2011), Leviathan (2014) won the Best Screenplay prize at Cannes and the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, going on to earn an Oscar nomination. Loveless (2017) won the Jury Prize at Cannes and brought him a second Oscar nomination, making him a director who has been nominated for the Academy Award twice. He left Russia and settled in Paris following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. His latest film, Minotaur, based on Claude Chabrol′s classic The Unfaithful Wife (1969), marks his return after nine years away from the screen following his brush with death, and won the Grand Prix in competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.
From Busan International Film Festival 2026, No. 31
