Ugla Hauksdóttir

Ugla Hauksdóttir (born 31 July 1989) is an Icelandic film and television director and screenwriter. She is known for directing episodes of international productions including Hanna, Snowfall, The Power, and Alien: Earth. She also directed episodes of the Icelandic series Trapped. Her debut feature film is The Fires (Eldarnir).

Early life and education Ugla studied photography and experimental filmmaking at the Cooper Union in New York City, later earning an MFA in screenwriting and directing from Columbia University.

Career Ugla began her career directing short films, including Salt (2014), How Far She Went (2017), and Sealskin (2020).

In 2016, she received the Directors Guild of America Student Film Award in the "Best Woman Student Filmmaker" category for How Far She Went. That same year, she was named a Nordic Talent to Watch by the Nordisk Film & TV Fond and became the first Icelandic woman to join the Directors Guild of America.

She directed two episodes of Trapped in its second season, joining a production team led by Baltasar Kormákur that aimed to increase the number of women directors in Icelandic television.

Her international television work includes directing episodes of the Amazon Prime series Hanna, FX’s Snowfall, and Amazon MGM Studios’s The Power.

Ugla’s debut feature film is The Fires, adapted from the bestselling novel Eldarnir (The Fires: Love and Other Disasters) by Sigríður Hagalín Björnsdóttir. The film is produced by Netop Films (Iceland) and Madants (Poland), with international sales handled by Bankside Films.

Filmography Short film Year Title Director Writer 2014 Salt 2017 How Far She Went 2020 Sealskin

Feature film Year Title Director Writer 2025 The Fires

Television