Julia Loktev

Julia Loktev was born in Leningrad, Soviet Union (now St. Petersburg, Russia) in a Jewish family.^[1][2] She immigrated to the United States as a child and lived in Colorado until leaving for college. She moved to Montreal to study English and film at McGill University.^[3] She received an M.F.A. from the Graduate Film Program at New York University.^[4]

In 1998 Loktev directed the documentary Moment of Impact, inspired by her father who was severely injured in an automobile accident.^[5] The documentary won the Documentary Directing Award at Sundance Film Festival and the Grand Prize at Cinéma du Réel.^[6]

Loktev was resident at Eyebeam in 2005.^[7] In 2006, she directed Day Night Day Night, which premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section of the 59th Cannes Film Festival, being recognized with the Prix Regard Jeune.^[8] The film was critically acclaimed, winning several film festival competitions and an Independent Spirit Award.^[9]

Loktev received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2009.^[4]

In 2011, Loktev adapted the short story Expensive Trips Nowhere into the film The Loneliest Planet.^[10][11] The film competed in several international film festivals, winning the Grand Jury Prize at the AFI Fest in Los Angeles and being nominated at the Film Independent Spirit Awards.^[6][12] In 2015, Richard Brody called her one of the best woman movie directors.^[13]

In 2024 Loktev directed the documentary film My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow,^[14][15] being critically acclaimend, winning several accolades, including the Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Documentary.^[16]

• Rough House, Brooklyn Museum of Art's "Global Feminisms" show^[17] (2007)