Bujar Alimani
Bujar Alimani was born in Patos, Albania in 1969. He studied painting and directing actors at the Academy of Fine Arts in Tirana. In 1992 he emigrated to Greece and worked as an assistant director. He lives in Athens and directs his first short film there. Bujar Alimani is one of the most prolific and important writer/directors of the New Albanian Cinema. Since his start as a filmmaker with an extraordinary series of avant-garde short films, KATOI (The Kennel), GAS, BUSULLA (The Compass) and NJE HISTORY DASHURIE (A Love Story), Bujar's work has been garlanded with praise for its wild imagination mixed with gritty realism. Nominated for the Oscars twice, Bujar's work has been featured at every major film festival worldwide including Sundance and Berlin, he's received countless international film festival awards for critically acclaimed shorts and feature films worldwide, and his work's been presented at some of the most prestigious institutions internationally including MoMa in NYC, proving him as a significant art house hit. Bujar began his foray into features films by writing and directing AMNISTIA (Amnesty), his first full-length feature film recognized by the critics as a masterpiece. He won the CICAE award at The Berlinale (Berlin Film Festival) and participated in 80 additional film festivals around the globe of which he won 13 additional awards. This success culminated in 2012, when AMNISTIA was officially selected to represent Albania at the Oscars, which led it to be honored at MoMA (Museum of Modern Arts) in New York City. Following the success of AMNISTIA, Bujar's second feature film KROM (Chromium) premiered at Karlovy Vary film festival (Czech Republic) and then went on to participate in 18 international festivals worldwide, once again winning several awards. Just as AMNISTIA, KROM then also went on to represent Albania in the foreign language category at the Academy Awards 2016. While shooting his next feature film, THE DELEGATION, Bujar found time to pursue his passion and shoot a one-of-a-kind indie short with MISSING EARRING, a buzz-worthy presence among producers and investors at the Sundance and Tribeca festivals. In 2018, Bujar's rise as a player in the indie film circuit was further cemented when his documentary ZOIS was nominated for Best Documentary and Best Director at the Queens World Film Festival. Following this achievement, Bujar formally announced his next two projects, SNOW and ESCORTS, both gritty indie feature films in the vein of Scorsese and Tarantino.