Aki Kaurismäki
Known For: Directing
Gender: Male
Date of Birth: April 4, 1957 (68 years old)
Place of Birth: Orimattila, Finland
Aki Olavi Kaurismäki (Finnish: [ˈɑki ˈkɑu̯rismæki]; born 4 April 1957; Orimattila) is a Finnish film director, screenwriter, producer, editor and actor. He is best known for the award-winning Drifting Clouds (1996), The Man Without a Past (2002), Le Havre (2011), The Other Side of Hope (2017) and Fallen Leaves (2023), as well as for the mockumentary Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989). He is described as Finland's best-known film director. He is an older brother to Mika Kaurismäki. After graduating in media studies from the University of Tampere, Kaurismäki worked as a bricklayer, postman, and dish-washer, long before pursuing his interest in cinema, first as a critic, and later as a screenwriter & director. He started his career as a co-screenwriter and actor in films made by his older brother, Mika Kaurismäki. He played the main role in Mika's film The Liar (1981). Together they founded the production company Villealfa Filmproductions and later the Midnight Sun Film Festival. His debut as an independent director was Crime and Punishment (1983), an adaptation of Dostoyevsky's novel set in modern Helsinki. He gained worldwide attention with Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989). Kaurismäki's film Ariel (1988) was entered into the 16th Moscow International Film Festival where it won the Prix FIPRESCI. Kaurismäki's most acclaimed film has been The Man Without a Past, which won the Grand Prix and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category in 2003. However, Kaurismäki refused to attend the Oscar ceremony, asserting that he did not feel like partying in a country that was in a state of war. Kaurismäki's next film Lights in the Dusk was also chosen to be Finland's nominee for best foreign-language film, but Kaurismäki again boycotted the awards and refused the nomination, as a protest against U.S. President George W. Bush's foreign policy. In 2002 Kaurismäki also boycotted the 40th New York Film Festival in a show of solidarity with the Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, who was not given a US visa in time for the festival. Kaurismäki's 2017 film The Other Side of Hope won the Silver Bear for Best Director award at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival. At the same festival he also announced that it would be his last film, although the retirement was short-lived as he began filming Fallen Leaves in 2022, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023.
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Actor Factory Worker Imitating Chaplin (uncredited)
Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses
Director
Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses
Director
Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatjana
Director
Total Balalaika Show
Writer
Total Balalaika Show
Writer
Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatjana
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Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatjana
Producer
Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatjana
Editor
Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses
Producer
Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses
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Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses
Screenplay
Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses
Producer
Total Balalaika Show
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Actor Sunglasses Seller (uncredited)
I Hired a Contract Killer
Director
The Match Factory Girl
Editor
The Match Factory Girl
Producer
I Hired a Contract Killer
Editor
I Hired a Contract Killer
Producer
The Match Factory Girl
Director
I Hired a Contract Killer
Screenplay
I Hired a Contract Killer
Writer
The Match Factory Girl
Story
I Hired a Contract Killer
