Byambasuren Davaa

Даваагийн Бямбасүрэн

1971 – Present

Region
East Asia
Heritage
Mongolia
Featured in
Growing Up

Biography

Between 1995 and 1998 she studied at the Movie Academy in Ulaanbaatar. In 1998 she began to work as a moderator and director's assistant with Mongolian National Television. In 2000 she moved to Munich, Germany, to study documentary film and communication sciences at the University of Television and Film Munich.[1] In 2003 Davaa wrote and directed The Story of the Weeping Camel (2003), which gained several awards and nominations, including Best Documentary Film at the Bavarian Film Awards, Best Documentary at the 57th Directors Guild of America Awards, and a nomination for Best Documentary at the 77th Academy Awards. Her other films include The Cave of the Yellow Dog (2006), for which she won the 2006 German Film Award for Best Children's Film, and Veins of the World (2020). Her films through 2006 tell stories embedded in the traditional life of the nomads in Mongolia. The subjects of her movies also serve as amateur actors, playing mostly themselves, which positions her work somewhere between documentary and fiction.

Selected Filmography

Selected Recognition

  1. Winner

    German Film Awards · Outstanding Children or Youth Film (Gold) (2021) · Winner

  2. Nominee

    Berlin International Film Festival · Best Film, Generation Kplus (2020) · Nominee

  3. First

    Selected as Mongolia's official submission for Best International Feature at the 93rd Academy Awards

  1. Winner

    German Film Award (Deutscher Filmpreis) · Best Children's Picture (2006) · Winner

  2. Winner

    Hamptons International Film Festival · Golden Starfish Award for Best Narrative Feature (2005) · Winner

  3. Winner

    Cannes Film Festival · Palm Dog (2005) · Winner

  4. First

    Mongolia's official Oscar submission for Best International Feature

  1. Winner

    Directors Guild of America Award · Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary (2005) · Winner

  2. Winner

    European Film Awards · Best Documentary (2003) · Winner

  3. Nominee

    Academy Award · Best Documentary Feature (2005) · Nominee

  4. First

    Mongolia's official submission for Best Foreign Language Film — at the 76th Academy Awards, before its later Oscar nomination for Best Documentary

Interview

External Resources