Aliaksei Paluyan

Aliaksei Paluyan was born in Belarus in 1989. He moved to Germany in 2012 and studied film and television directing at the Kunsthochschule Kassel. He is known as a director of short fiction films and creative documentaries that have been presented at festivals worldwide. In 2019, his short fiction drama Lake of Happiness, a German-Belarusian-Spanish co-production, premiered in Clermont-Ferrand and won numerous awards at international film festivals before being nominated in the short film category at the 2020 European Film Awards and longlisted for Best Live Action Short at the 2021 Oscars. In 2021, his documentary debut, Courage, premiered at the 71st Berlin International Film Festival and was subsequently screened at major film festivals, including IDFA, Visions du Réel, CPH:DOX, HotDocs, Sheffield Doc/Fest, and Krakow IFF. It has also been longlisted for the 2022 Academy Awards. Aliaksei is a member of the European Film Academy and an alumnus of Berlinale Talents (2022).