Biography

Maris Martinsons is an internationally awarded film director, screenwriter, editor and producer. After graduating from Latvia Conservatoires in 1989 as a "drama theatre director" he worked together with Latvian musicians as an independent director/producer for music videos. His first, "This Is My Car" by the band Jumprava, was the first independent music video in Latvian music/audiovisual history and it won the best music video award in 1989/1990.

Martinsons originally worked in the TV field, creating TV shows, music videos and TV series. He has created over 10 original TV series, mostly as director and screenwriter and each of these productions brought him a step closer to creating a feature film.

During 2008 - 2010 Martinsons' first feature film "Loss" traveled all round the world participating in numerous film festivals and official screenings. It has been the first feature film from Baltic winning A class film festival awards - Best Director and Best Music in Shanghai IFF (2008). The jury was headed by director Wong Kar Wai. "Loss" represented Lithuania in the Academy Awards as the Best Foreign Language film.

After the international premiere of "Loss", Martinsons met wonderful Japanese actress Kaori Momoi, who after watching "Loss" expressed her willingness to participate in some of the Martinsons' films. He immediately started to write a new story "Amaya" specially devoted for Momoi, who made this inspiration. The new film project began - script wrote in different countries, ending a location in Hong Kong.

Next feature films have been created as very low-budget films and the reason hasn't been only lack of money, but mainly - to have bigger freedom and independent feeling on the filming location. Thus was created "Christmas. Uncensored" (2013), shot in Lithuania, "Oki - in the middle of the ocean" (2014), shot in Los Angeles together with Kaori Momoi, and currently in the post-production process - "Romeo n' Juliet" (2015).

- IMDb mini biography by: Linda Krukle