Alexander Denysenko

Alexander Denysenko is a Ukrainian-Polish film director known for Before the Dawn and Wonderwall, and a protégé of Academy Award–winning director Andrzej Wajda and Oscar-nominated cinematographer Sławomir Idziak. Wajda wrote of his student’s “talent, sensitivity and unique vision.” Denysenko has won 59 international awards, and his films have been selected for 168 festivals in 37 countries. He has served on festival juries in Kraków, Paris, and London.

Born in the USSR, he came of age in 1990s independent Ukraine, between the street, where might made right, and his painter father’s studio. He trained at the Wajda School in Warsaw and at FOCAL in Switzerland, then studied the Meisner technique to search for a living person’s truth on screen. He teaches acting and directing at the National University of Lviv and is a member of the Polish Filmmakers Association (SFP) and the National Union of Cinematographers of Ukraine.