- Born
- Alexander Nanau is a German/Romanian filmmaker born in Bucharest, Romania in 1979. He studied Film Direction at the DFFB Filmschool in Berlin. His first feature documentary Peter Zadek inszeniert Peer Gynt (2006) was released 2006 in Germany and Austria. In 2008/2009 he co-produced with HBO, directed and shot the documentary The World According to Ion B. (2009) about a 62 years homeless man who starts a career in the international art world with collages he made over the last 30 years. The documentary won an 'International Emmy Award' for Arts Programming in 2010. His third feature documentary Toto and His Sisters (2014), produced together with HBO, premiered at the San Sebastian Film Festival in the 'New Directors' section. The film won major awards at the international film festivals in Angers, Zurich, Warsaw, Jihlava, Leipzig and Sarajevo and was nominated as 'Best Documentary' at the European Film Awards 2015. The documentary "Collective" that he produced, directed, shot and edited became the first Romanian film to be nominated for an Academy Award, when it was nominated twice in 2021, in the Best International Feature Film and Best Documentary category.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous
- First Romanian-born Academy Award nominee (together with one of the four producers of the film Bianca Oana) since director Jean Negulesco, producer and actor John Houseman (won), screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond (won), producer Marin Karmitz and director Robert Dornhelm.
- Member of the 'Documentary Competition' jury at the 22nd Sarajevo International Film Festival in 2016.
- Member of the 'Official Competition' jury at the 78th Venice International Film Festival in 2021.
- Member of the 'Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' (AMPAS) in the 'Directors' and 'Documentary' branch since 2021.
- [on Collective (2019)] I really wanted to make a film about abuse of power...when I started filming, it was a local story. But when Brexit went through, I thought the world was starting to resemble what we were seeing in Romania. And I wanted to understand the human pressure that is on the shoulders of journalists in this climate of 'fake news.' [March 2021]
- [why he decided to do Collective (2019)] I sensed the drama. The survival rate, even with 30% of a body burned, is very high, if the patient is taken care of in a proper way. We knew that the politicians and the health care system were very corrupt, but we could never imagine how deep it went. It was a shock to see this lack of humanity. Even as people were demonstrating in the streets, the political class were manipulating the shocked citizens with lies, which led to so many more deaths. (...) Romania did not have burn units to treat severely burned patients, but [officials] were saying that the hospitals were equipped to treat burn victim patients. They also prohibited the patients to be flown out to other cities and then lied to the parents. And to everybody. (...) The fire is what triggered us, but the film is basically about this turning point in Romanian society. The nightclub fire, which could have been prevented, led to the biggest demonstrations in Romania since the 1989 revolutions. And for the first time a new generation took the streets to protest basically their parents generation and the political class that brought corruption to every level of society in Romania. They wanted to get rid of it. [Jan. 2021]
- [on filming then-health minister Vlad Voiculescu at work for Collective (2019)] I interviewed him and we talked about how there is no reason to have secrets within the health care system, because it's a basic right. He said, "Transparency is the most important thing now." So it was natural to follow the script that life was writing for us. And we had an arrangement that he could never tell me to stop the camera. We agreed that I would ask people with him if they agree to be filmed. [Jan. 2021]
- [on shooting Collective (2019) himself] As a journalist, it's very good when things full of tension are happening, because your subjects forget about you in a way. They can't control their image anymore. They forget they are being filmed. You can see how honest or how authentic people are. That's also the thrill of it. [Jan. 2021]
- [on receiving Romania's first Academy Award nominations for Collective (2019)] We live in an international community, and I think stories have to travel. The pride is more that this story is so crucial for Romanian society, and it was a turning point that changes the perception of investigative journalism and the courage of singular whistleblowers who can really change society. That's something we really need now, when so many countries are dealing with manipulative, corrupt and incompetent politicians. [March 2021]
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