Saulė Bliuvaitė (born 1994) is a Lithuanian film director and screenwriter. For her feature film debut Toxic (2024), she won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival.
Saulė Bliuvaitė | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 4, 1994 Kaunas, Lithuania |
| Alma mater | Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (LMTA) |
| Occupation(s) | Film director, screenwriter |
Early life and education
editBliuvaitė studied film directing at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (LMTA) in Vilnius. During this time, she made four short films that were shown at Lithuanian and foreign film festivals. She graduated in 2018 with a bachelor's degree.[1][2]
Career
editIn 2019, Bliuvaitė was involved as co-author and editor of the historical feature film Isaac by Jurgis Matulevičius.[1] The work was nominated for the European Film Award and was Lithuania's contribution to a 2022 Oscar nomination in the Best International Feature Film. For Limousine (2021), Bliuvaitė won awards at the German film festival GoEast and the Warsaw Film Festival. The 15-minute documentary short film shows a wide variety of groups of people desperately searching for entertainment in a limousine of the same name.[3]
Bliuvaitė's international breakthrough was her feature film debut Toxic (2024). The drama is about two 13-year-old girls who want to escape their desolate and hopeless Lithuanian hometown. To do so, they push their bodies to the limit in a modeling school.[4] The screenplay for the film is based on Bliuvaitė's own experiences as a teenager.[5] Toxic was invited to the international competition of the 77th Locarno Film Festival. There, the film was awarded the main prize, the Golden Leopard, by the jury led by Austrian Jessica Hausner.[6][7] Other awards for Bliuvaitė included the Swatch First Feature Award for Best Feature Film Debut and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury.[7][8]
Filmography
editShort film
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Editor | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Life Is Beautiful and Neverending (Gyvenimas yra grazus ir niekada nesibaigia) | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2017 | Yana | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2019 | The Contest | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2021 | Limousine | Yes | Yes | Yes | Documentary short |
Feature film
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Toxic | Yes | Yes | No |
Awards and nominations
edit| Year | Award | Category | Title | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | GoEast | RheinMain Short Film Prize | Limousine | Won | |
| Warsaw Film Festival | Best Documentary Short Film | Won | |||
| 2024 | Locarno Film Festival | Golden Leopard | Toxic | Won | |
| Swatch First Feature Award | Won | ||||
| Prize of the Ecumenical Jury | Won |
References
edit- ^ a b "Saulė Bliuvaitė". locarnofestival.ch. Retrieved 18 August 2024.
- ^ "#Saulė Bliuvaitė". lrt.lt. Retrieved 18 August 2024..
- ^ "Limousine". filmfestival-goeast.de. Retrieved 18 August 2024.
- ^ Toxic at Lexikon des internationalen Films (accessdate: 18 August 2024).
- ^ Wilkinson, Amber (17 August 2024). "Toxic': Locarno Review". screendaily.com. Retrieved 18 August 2024.
- ^ "Jessica Hausner ist neue Jurypräsidentin von Locarno77". locarnofestival.ch. 16 May 2024. Retrieved 18 August 2024.
- ^ a b "Locarno77: Der Pardo d'Oro geht an Akiplėša (Toxic) von Saulė Bliuvaitė". locarnofestival.ch. 17 August 2024. Retrieved 18 August 2024.
- ^ "Regisseurin aus Litauen gewinnt in Locarno Preis der Ökumenischen Jury". kath.ch. 18 August 2024. Retrieved 18 August 2024.
