Lithuanian Culture Institute
Cinema

Ignas Jonynas

Lithuanian Culture Institute
Ignas Jonynas

 

Ignas Jonynas (born 1971) studied television directing at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre and attended a series of seminars in Warsaw (led by Krzysztof Zanussi) in 1991. In 1993, he worked as an intern at the Amsterdam Film School. Two years later, he acquired a master’s degree in theatre directing.

Jonynas directed stage performances including Nikolai Gogol’s The Overcoat (1995), Albert Ostermaier’s The Making of a B-Movie (2001), Albert Camus’ Caligula (2003) at the State Youth Theatre of Lithuania. For over 10 years, Jonynas created promotional video clips and finally made his cinematic debut with the short feature films Sekmadienis toks, koks yra / Sunday As It Is (2003) and Šokantis kirminas / Dancing Worm (2006). Dancing Worm won the Audience Award at Circuito Off Venice International Short Film Festival and Best Photography Award at the Lucania Film Festival.

Moral choices, measuring one’s conscience, and betting on death are all explored in his full-length feature Lošėjas / The Gambler (2013). Together with Kristupas Sabolius, the co-author of the screenplay, Jonynas searched for borderline situations that would best reveal the duality of human nature. The Gambler was the first film from the Baltic countries to premiere at the San Sebastián Film Festival. It won the Special Jury Prize at the Warsaw Film Festival, Special Jury Award and Prix Luna for best film at the 9th l’Europe autour de l’Europe film festival of Paris (France), Silver Dolphins for Best Script and Best Actor (Vytautas Kaniušonis) at the 30th Festroia International Film Festival in Setúbal (Portugal) and five National Silver Crane Awards in 2014. The film became the first example of successful cinematic collaboration between Lithuania and Latvia.

www.ignasjonynas.com