DOCU/PRO People

Arūnas Matelis

Arunas Matelis is a documentary film director and producer. From 1979 to 1983 he studied Mathematics at Vilnius University, and graduated from the Lithuanian Music Academy in 1989. He has directed 10 creative documentary shorts which have been selected for Cannes (La Quinzaine des Réalisateursand La Semaine de la Critique), Rotterdam, Oberhausen, Torino and other film festivals. Arunas’ first medium-length documentary Before Flying Back to the Earth has received more than 10 awards, including the awards of the Directors’ Guild of America, IDFA, DOK Leipzig, Zagreb DOX and the European Film Academy nomination. Arunas’ feature documentary Wonderful Losers: A Different World (2017) received the Best Documentary Award at the Warsaw Film Festival, the Grand-Prix for the Best Documentary and Audience Award at the Minsk Listapad Film Festival, the Lithuanian Filmmakers’ Union Award, and was named the Best Lithuanian Film of 2017. Arūnas Matelis has established an independent film production company, Studio Nominum, and since 1992 has produced or co-produced over 30 creative documentaries which have received over 20 international awards.