Andrius Blaževičius
Andrius Blaževičius (born 1985) studied history and cultural anthropology at Vilnius University in 2004, but changed to film directing at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre in 2005, where he graduated with a master’s degree in 2011. Blaževičius has directed six short films; the most recent being Dešimt priežasčių / Ten Reasons (2012) was recognized as the Best Lithuanian Short Film in 2012 by the Lithuanian Film Academy. Ten Reasons is a reflection on the impact of media and pop culture on young people and their relationships among each other and with their parents. Blaževičius’s debut feature film Šventasis / The Saint premiered at the Warsaw International Film Festival in 2016. Soon thereafter it was selected for the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), Nordic Film Days Lübeck, the Crossing Europe Film Festival Linz, the Trieste Film Festival, the Brisbane Film Festival, and others. The Saint won the special jury prize at the Minsk Film Festival Listapad and six National Silver Crane Awards 2017. A social-realist drama with comic touches, the film is set in a Lithuanian provincial town in 2008 during the midst of the economic crisis. It follows the life of Vytas, a husband and father in his early thirties who has just been fired. The Saint is as much a critique of the bureaucratic and inefficient social systems that are powerless against unemployment due to economic instability outside the control of any one country, as it is an examination of the social pressures of masculinity.