Alexander Nanau
Alexander Nanau was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1979. 1990 he emigrated with his family to Germany and became a German citizen. Nanau studied Film Direction at the renowned DFFB in Berlin. His first feature documentary Peter Zadek inszeniert Peer Gynt (2006) was released 2006 in Germany and Austria. In 2007 he was a scholarship holder of the Academy of Arts in Berlin. In 2008/2009 he co-produced with HBO Romania, directed and shot the documentary Lumea vãzutã de Ion B. (2009) about a 62 years homeless man who starts a career in the international art world with collages he made over the last 30 years. The documentary won the prestigious 'International Emmy Award' for Arts Programming in 2010. His third feature documentary Toto si surorile lui (2014), produced together with HBO Europe, premiered at the San Sebastian Film Festival in the 'New Directors' section. The film won major awards at the international film festivals in Angers, Zurich, Warsaw, Jihlava, Leipzig and Sarajevo. It was nominated as 'Best Documentary' at the European Film Awards 2015 and won the international Cinema Eye Honors' Spotlight Award 2016. The documentary "Collective" that he produced and directed became the first Romanian film to be nominated for an Academy Award, when it was nominated twice in 2021, in the Best International Feature Film and Best Documentary category.