Biography
Lina Lužytė was born in 1985 in Vilnius, Lithuania, and studied film directing at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater. Her student short film "Jau puiku, tik dar siek tiek" ("It Would Be Splendid, Yet", 2009), about a Lithuanian woman and her personal search for identity after her country regained independence, was screened at international festivals and nominated for the Lithuanian Film Award in five categories, including Best Short Film and Best Screenplay. Lužytė's first feature-length documentary, "Igrushki" (2010), depicts the everyday life of residents of a provincial town in Belarus who, out of sheer necessity, illegally sell stuffed animals to passengers on passing trains. The film was also screened at various festivals and received a nomination for Best Documentary at the Lithuanian Film Awards.
After completing her master's degree in 2011, Lina Lužytė participated in the long-term documentary project "199 Little Heroes" under the auspices of the German UNESCO Commission. The film series follows children around the world on their sometimes arduous journey to school. Lina Lužytė made her feature film debut in 2016 with "Together For Ever," a tragicomic portrait of a dysfunctional family; the film premiered at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival and received ten nominations at the Lithuanian Film Awards, including in the Best Director and Best Screenplay categories. Lužytė's second feature film, "Pilis" ("The Castle", LT/IE 2020), about the difficult relationship between a musically gifted girl and her mother, won Best Film at the Stony Brook Film Festival (New York State) and also received several nominations for the Lithuanian Film Award.
In 2021, Lužytė started working on the documentary "Picknick in Moria - Blue Red Deport", a German production about an Afghan artist who is stuck with his family in the notorious Greek refugee camp Moria and starts a feature film project together with other asylum seekers despite the adverse circumstances. The film premiered at the Copenhagen festival CPH:DOX in April 2022 and was released in German cinemas in summer 2023.