Pavel Sanaev

Pavel Sanaev began in the movie industry at the age of 12 when he played a role in the film Scarecrow (Weirdo), which became one of the most significant Soviet cinematic events of the 1980s. Subsequently, he acted on three more occasions in the following films: 1986 - Umbrella for the Newlyweds 1988 - Three Lights 1990 - The First Loss This last film, shot in Germany, was shown at many European festivals and won the first prize at the Sanremo Festival. The main character, that of the Soviet POW Alexei played by Sanaev, was praised by the festival's critics. In 1987, Pavel Sanaev became a student at the Screenwriting Department of the State Institute of Cinematography, from which he graduated in 1992. Shortly after graduation, he began work on his short novel Bury Me Behind the Baseboard, which was published in 1996 in the literary magazine October and won that magazine's prize for the best literary debut. In the 1990s, the publishing industry in Russia was in a slump. The novel Bury Me Behind the Baseboard was published in book form only in 2003, and it immediately became a major bestseller. The book remained near the top of the charts for ten years, sold more than a million copies, and formed the basis of several theatrical productions and a successful motion picture. In 2005, Sanaev was awarded the Triumph prize for this novel. Today, the book has achieved cult status in Russia and has been translated into many languages. In 2011, its Italian translation won first prize at a literary competition in the town of Penne in Italy, and in 2014, it topped the list of "25 Books that Inspired the World, 1989-2014" by the magazine World Literature Today. Between 1995 and 2003, while waiting for the book to achieve success, Pavel Sanaev worked as motion-picture translator for WEST Studio, the general distributor for Miramax in Russia, and KARO Studio, the general distributor for Warner Brothers. Russian moviegoers saw some 700 films in Sanaev's translation, among them Scary Movie, Down Periscope, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Requiem For a Dream, Kill Bill, Austin Powers Goldmember, Lord of the Rings, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and many others. In between translations, Sanaev made four short films and wrote two full-length screenplays, The Last Weekend and Milepost Zero. In 2004, Sanaev shot a short film, The Kaunas Blues, for Lithuanian TV's Channel One. It was based on his own screenplay and featured leading Lithuanian actors. The film was played in prime time in Lithuania and was received warmly by the audiences. 2005 was the year of Pavel Sanaev's debut as director of full-length feature films. The Last Weekend screenplay was greenlighted, and Pavel was invited to direct it. This motion picture is officially recognized as the first youth thriller ever made in Russia and took a notable place in Russian cinematic history. The film did well at the box office, achieved excellent DVD sales, and is still frequently replayed on TV. Sanaev won the first prize for directing at the international Baltic Debuts Film Festival in Svetlogorsk and was nominated for the Nika Discovery of the Year award of the Russian Film Academy. In 2006, Sanaev made a film based on his Milepost Zero screenplay. The movie did well at the box office and was one of the top five in DVD sales. Two actors received best acting awards at film festivals for it. Between 2007 and 2009, Pavel Sanaev worked on the film internationally known under the title Hooked. This ambitious adventure thriller about gamers who apply their gaming skills to real life represents Sanaev's foremost achievement as screenwriter and director to date. The film, which cost $7 million to make, was entered into several festival competitions in the US and won ten awards, among them the Best Film award and the Best Action Sequence award at the Action On Film Festival 2010 in Pasadena, California. The rights to the film were sold for distribution in more than 30 countries, and in 2011, it achieved success in China. Consequently, Hooked was recognized as the top Russian box-office hit abroad for 2011. In 2011, Sanaev resumed writing fiction and began work on his novel Chronicles of a Slacker, which was published in 2013 and promptly moved to the top of the sales charts. In 2014, the novel won the first prize by LitRes Publishers and the Runet Book Prize. That same year, his novel Bury Me Behind the Baseboard was published in English translation and was nominated for the "25 Books that Inspired the World, 1989-2014" competition by the World Literature Today magazine, winning first place. In 2013, Sanaev completed the New York Film Academy (NYFA) producers' course at the Moscow Higher School of Economics and in 2014, he debuted as a producer with the low-budget comedy Total Transformation, based on his own screenplay. The film, which was also Philipp Korshunov's directing debut, won the top prize at the Spirit of the Fire festival of motion-picture debuts in Khanty-Mansiysk. That same year, the STS TV channel contracted Pavel Sanaev for the 16-episode mini-series Hooked-2, a sequel to the gamers' story popular with the channel's audiences. Between 2011 and 2014, Sanaev was also engaged in startup creation as a venture investor. He was instrumental in launching www.ruskino.ru, a prominent information resource on Russian cinema, as well as the Bank of Good, a philanthropy startup scheduled for release in September 2016. Pavel Sanaev repeatedly served on jury panels for various festivals and competitions. In 2012, he was on the jury for the Russian Booker, a major literary prize, and in 2013 he headed the jury for the Debut literary award. Current projects: Pavel Sanaev is presently working on the second part of his novel Chronicles of a Slacker, expected to be issued in 2017. Also in the works are the screenplay for a major fantasy thriller The Illusion, as well as the low-budget thrillers V and The Forest, which Pavel plans to produce and direct in the US.