Valery Todorovsky

Valery Petrovich Todorovsky (, ; born 9 May 1962) is a celebrated Russian film director, screenwriter, TV producer. A member of a prominent dynasty of filmmakers, he is the son of Pyotr Todorovsky and the father of Pyotr Todorovsky Jr.

Biography

Early years and family Valery Todorovsky was born in Odesa on 8 May 1962, to a prominent Soviet film director Pyotr Todorovsky and his wife Mira. As recalled by Todorovsky, he practically grew up on set as he always followed his father at work. He played his first role in cinema when he was still a schoolboy. When he was 10, the family moved to Moscow. as well as awards at Sozvezdie, Chicago, Geneva, San Sebastian and Montpellier Film Festivals.

His 1994 noir drama Katya Ismailova, starring Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė, is a modern adaptation of Nikolai Leskov's 1865 novella Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. The movie was well received by critics and audience and won 5 Nika Awards, including Best Director.

One of Todorovsky's most known works is a 1998 drama The Country of Deaf, written by actress and director Renata Litvinova and based on her own novella To Have and to Belong, became a big success and reached cult status. The film was selected for the 48th Berlin International Film Festival in 1998, it won several Nikas (for Best Female Actor (Dina Korzun) and Best Sound Design (Gleb Kravetsky). ) and Best Films Award at the 1998 Russian Guild of Film Critics Awards. An intense drama, it portrayed the world devoid of love, where love was substituted with erotic obsession or becomes a prey to financial interests.

In 1999 Todorovsky was a member of the jury at the 21st Moscow International Film Festival.

His 2008 musical film Hipsters became widely popular in Russia, grossed $16 mln and won the Golden Eagle Award and Nika Award for Best Film. Though it couldn’t target foreign audiences on the same level as Russian, the movie was released internationally, screened at several festivals and collected a series of awards, including the Black Pearl narrative film award in 2009 at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival.

After the success of the Hipsters, Todorovsky returned to the 1960s in Russia with two TV series, The Thaw and the Optimists, both well received by the audience and critically acclaimed.

TV and producing

Since the 1990s, Todorovsky has also been active as a producer, his credits include dozens of TV series and feature films.

In 2022, his drama In Two premiered on a Russian streaming service More.tv, it starred Alexander Petrov, Danila Kozlovsky, and Irina Starshenbaum.

Valery Todorovsky was married by second marriage to actress Evgeniya Brik, with whom he had a daughter Zoya, born in 2009 in Los Angeles. The couple lived in the USA and occasionally returned to Russia for work.

Selected filmography Director 1990 – Katafalk 1991 – Love 1994 – Katya Ismailova 1998 – The Country of Deaf 2002 – The Lover 2004 – My Step Brother Frankenstein 2007 – Vice 2008 – Hipsters 2013 – The Thaw TV series 2017 – Bolshoi 2019 – Odesa 2020 – Hypnosis 2022 – In Two TV series

Screenwriter 1991 – Cynics 1992 – Over the Dark Water 2013 – The Geographer Drank His Globe Away

Producer 1999-2000 – Kamenskaya (TV series) 2003 – The Idiot 2006 – Piranha 2006 – Kiss of a Butterfly 2006 – Filipp's Bay 2008 – S. S. D. 2009 – Oxygen 2014 – Chagall — Malevich 2014 – Iron Ivan 2021 – The Danube 2023 - Actresses