Loznitsa was born on 5 September 1964 in the city of
Baranavichy, in the
Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. Later, the Loznitsa family moved to
Kyiv,
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, where he completed high school. Loznitsa graduated from
Kyiv Polytechnic Institute as a mathematician in 1987. Between 1987 and 1991, he worked at the Institute of Cybernetics, where he developed expert systems, systems of design-making and artificial intelligence. Loznitsa also worked as a translator from
Japanese. In 1991, he enrolled at the
Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography, in the fictional-film direction department taught by
Nana Jorjadze. He graduated with honors in 1997. After completion of his studies Loznitsa began working as a documentary film director in
Saint Petersburg in 2000. He and his family moved to
Germany in 2001. In 2007, Loznitsa travelled to Canada to participate in the first retrospective of his films at Media City Film Festival, representing his first in person visit to North America. This screening and lecture included many of the director's lesser-known short films focussing on his intimate depictions of the former Soviet Europe, including
Halt (2000),
Portrait (2002), and
Factory (2004). Many of Loznitsa's films had North American premieres at Media City Film Festival, including
Blockade (2005),
Artel (2006),
Revue (2008),
The Letter (2012) and others before the director began to gain international prominence with major screenings at TIFF, NYFF and elsewhere. In 2010, his film
My Joy was selected for the main competition at the
2010 Cannes Film Festival. His 2012 film,
In the Fog, competed for the
Palme d'Or at the
2012 Cannes Film Festival.
Maidan had its world premiere in a special screening at Cannes in May 2014, and was a record of the 2013–14 popular protests in Kyiv and their violent suppression. His documentary "
Babi Yar. Context" was created with help from
Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Center. On 28 February 2022, Loznitsa resigned from the
European Film Academy in response to its statement expressing "solidarity with Ukraine" published days earlier in response to the
Russian invasion of Ukraine. In an open letter, Loznitsa condemned the academy for failing "to call a war a war, to condemn barbarity and voice your protest". On 1 March 2022, the academy announced that it would exclude Russian films from its
European Film Awards. The same day, Loznitsa spoke against this decision, saying, "many friends and colleagues, Russian filmmakers, have taken a stand against this insane war. ... They are victims as we are of this aggression", and calling to "not judge people based on their passports" but "on their acts". On 19 March 2022, the
Ukrainian Film Academy announced Loznitsa's expulsion for opposing the boycott of Russian films. The academy stated that Loznitsa had "repeatedly stressed that he considers himself a cosmopolitan, 'a man of the world'. However, now, when Ukraine is struggling to defend its independence, the key concept in the rhetoric of every Ukrainian should be his national identity." Loznitsa issued a statement the same day, saying, "I was astonished to read of the Ukrainian film academy's decision to expel me for being a
cosmopolite. ... It is only during the late Stalinist era, from the onset of the antisemitic campaign unleashed by Stalin between 1948 and 1953, that the term acquired a negative connotation in Soviet propaganda discourse. By speaking out against cosmopolitanism, the Ukrainian 'academy members' employ this very discourse invented by Stalin". Loznitsa called the academy's emphasis on the national identity "Nazism" and a "gift to Kremlin propagandists". Loznitza believed
Babi Yar. Context was a contributing factor, as it deals with Ukraine’s collaboration in the Nazi massacre of Jews at
Babi Yar. Academy members, he said, "had a very different perception of Ukrainian history, which they claim they know better than anyone". In 2025, his
Two Prosecutors had its world premiere at the main competition of the
78th Cannes Film Festival, where it was nominated for the
Palme d'Or and won
François Chalais Prize. It follows a young Soviet prosecutor seeking justice for a political prisoner during
Joseph Stalin's ongoing
Great Purge. ==Selected filmography==