Ignas Miškinis
The graduation work of the director and scriptwriter Ignas Miškinis (born 1978) was the short film Lengvai ir saldžiai / Easily and Sweetly (2003), which inspired a new wave of interest in Lithuanian cinema. It was the first commercially successful and well-received Lithuanian film. Easily and Sweetly was shown at a lot of film festivals.
The full-length black comedy Diringas / Diring, which appeared in 2005, explores the exaggerated importance of image in contemporary society. The urban landscape of Vilnius is one of the main motifs of Miškinis’s films. His Artimos šviesos / Low Lights (2009) won the award for Best Feature Film at the National Silver Crane 2009 Film and Television Awards. The film’s style and theme were atypical of Lithuanian cinema. The action takes place at night on the streets of Vilnius, with three lonely protagonists, who desire, at least for a short time, to escape the mundane, with the focus on the search for intimacy and true feelings in the modern world. The fundamental themes of Miškinis’s third full-length feature Karalių pamaina / Kings’ Shift (2016) are duty and humanity. It premiered in 2016 at the Festival des Films du Monde in Montreal, Canada and was part of the competitive program at the Duhok International Film Festival in Iraq in 2017. Kings’ Shift was awarded the national Silver Crane award for the best supporting actor and best composer in 2016 and the Special Prize from the Lithuanian Filmmakers Union for innovative dramaturgy.