Filmmakers of Ukrainian Origin (Not Living in Ukraine, Mainly)

1. Darren Aronofsky

Writer | Pi

Darren Aronofsky was born February 12, 1969, in Brooklyn, New York. Growing up, Darren was always artistic: he loved classic movies and, as a teenager, he even spent time doing graffiti art. After high school, Darren went to Harvard University to study film (both live-action and animation). He won ...

A grandson of Abraham Aronofsky (school-educated in Odesa).

2. Lev Arnshtam

Writer | Glinka

Lev Arnshtam was born on January 15, 1905 in Yekaterinoslav, Yekaterinoslav uyezd, Yekaterinoslav Governorate, Russian Empire [now Dnipropetrovsk, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine]. He was a writer and director, known for The Great Glinka (1946), Romeo & Juliet (1955) and Zoya (1944). He died on ...

3. Vyacheslav Bihun

Director | How Can I Not Love You

Vyacheslav Bihun is known for How Can I Not Love You (2017), Fatalis (2020) and Chendej's Shadows (2020).

A great/grandson of a US citizen, educated in Ukraine and the US, Germany and France (returned to Ukraine where he became the most awarded Ukrainian filmmaker).

4. Richard Boleslawski

Director | Theodora Goes Wild

Inventing a stage name "Boleslawski" (later spelled also "Boleslavsky"), young Pole Boleslaw Ryszard Srzednicki left his second home (Odessa, Russian Empire) to study theatre and train as an actor at the world-famous Moscow Art Theatre before and during WW I. He also acted in a few early Russian ...

Born in Mohyliv-Podilskyi in 1889.

5. Sergey Bondarchuk

Actor | Voyna i mir

Sergei Bondarchuk was one of the most important Russian filmmakers, best known for directing an Academy Award-winning film epic War and Peace (1965), based on the book by Lev Tolstoy, in which he also starred as Pierre Bezukhov.

He was born Sergei Fedorovich Bondarchuk on September, 25, 1920, in the ...

A native of Kherson area which has been partly and temporarily occupied by Russia since 2022.

6. Grigoriy Chukhray

Director | Ballada o soldate

Studied at the Moscow Cinema Institute under Soviet film master Mikhail Romm. He found fame after his 1959 film "Ballad of a Soldier" which is considered one of the best Soviet war films and which has played all over the world.

7. Xenia Desni

Actress | Der Turm des Schweigens

Xenia Desni was born on January 19, 1894 in Kiev, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. She was an actress, known for Der Turm des Schweigens (1925), Der Meister der Welt (1927) and Erzherzog Johann (1929). She died on May 27, 1962 in Roquefort-les-Pins, France.

8. Maya Deren

Director | Meshes of the Afternoon

Maya Deren came to the USA in 1922 as Eleanora Derenkowsky. Together with her father Solomon Derenkowsky, a psychiatrist, and her mother Maria Fidler, an artist, she fled the pogroms organized by the Bolsheviks against the Jews. She studied journalism and political science at the Syracuse ...

A native of Kyiv, who emigrated as 5-year-old (in 1922) to the US as Eleanora Derenkowsky.

9. Eugene Deslaw

Director | Vision fantastique

Eugene Deslaw was born on December 8, 1898 in Kyiv, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. Eugene was a director and writer, known for Vision fantastique (1957), Chantaje (1946) and Por el gran premio (1947). Eugene died on September 10, 1966 in Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France.

Born in 1908 in Kyiv, Yevhen Slavchenko changed his name to a French manner and became a French filmmaker.

10. Edward Dmytryk

Director | The Caine Mutiny

Edward Dmytryk grew up in San Francisco, the son of Ukrainian immigrants. After his mother died when he was 6, his strict disciplinarian father beat the boy frequently, and the child began running away while in his early teens. Eventually, juvenile authorities allowed him to live alone at the age ...

Oscar-winning Hollywood film director, born in the US, of Ukrainian parents.

11. Aleksandr Dovzhenko

Writer | Zemlya

Aleksandr Dovzhenko was born on September 10, 1894 in Vyunishche, Sosnitsa Ueyzd, Chernigov Governorate, Russian Empire [now Sosnitsa, Sosnitsa Raion, Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine]. He was a writer and director, known for Earth (1930), Shors (1939) and Life in Bloom (1949). He was married to Yuliya ...

Forbidden to return to work in Ukraine, died and buried in Moscow.

12. David Duchovny

Actor | The X Files

David William Duchovny was born on August 7, 1960, in New York City, New York, USA. His father, Amram Ducovny, was a writer and publicist who was from a family of Jewish immigrants (from Ukraine and Poland), and worked for the American Jewish Committee. His mother, Margaret (Miller), was a ...

A son of a Jewish immigrant from Ukraine.

13. Vera Farmiga

Actress | Up in the Air

Vera Farmiga is an American actress who has received an Academy Award nomination for her role in Up in the Air (2009) and Primetime Emmy Award nominations for her roles in Bates Motel (2013) and When They See Us (2019).

She was born Vera Ann Farmiga, the second of seven children, on August 6, 1973, ...

14. Gal Gadot

Actress | Wonder Woman

Gal Gadot is an Israeli actress and model. She was born in Petah Tikva, Israel, to an Ashkenazi Jewish family (from Poland, Austria, Germany, and Czechoslovakia who Hebraized their name from 'Greenstein' to sound less European). She served in the IDF for two years, and won the Miss Israel title in ...

Israeli actress one of whose grandfathers is from Mukachevo in Transcarpathia.

15. Maryna Er Gorbach

Director | Klondaik

Ukrainian film director: After studying in Kyiv National I. K. Karpenko-Kary Theatre, Cinema & Television University (Ukraine), graduated from Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing (Poland). She is married to Mehmet Bahadir Er, as director duo, directed and produced together 3 feature films....

Born and educated in Ukraine, married to a Turkish filmmaker living in Istanbul.

16. Alexander Granach

Actor | Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens

Alexander Granach was born in the region of Galizia, in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire (today Ukraine). Given the name Jessaja Szajko Gronish, he was one of a dozen children of a poor Jewish family eking out a living, first in a farming village, later in a series of small towns and ...

17. Dustin Hoffman

Actor | Tootsie

Dustin Lee Hoffman was born in Los Angeles, California, to Lillian (Gold) and Harry Hoffman, who was a furniture salesman and prop supervisor for Columbia Pictures. He was raised in a Jewish family (from Ukraine, Russia-Poland, and Romania). Hoffman graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1955, ...

18. Milla Jovovich

Actress | Le Cinquième Élément

Milla Jovovich is a Ukrainian-American actress, supermodel, fashion designer, singer and public figure, who was on the cover of more than a hundred magazines, and starred in such films as The Fifth Element (1997), Ultraviolet (2006), and the Resident Evil (2002) franchise.

Milica Bogdanovna Jovovich...

19. Jerzy Kawalerowicz

Director | Pociag

Jerzy Kawalerowicz was born on January 19, 1922 in Gwozdziec, Stanislawowskie, Poland [now Hvizdets, Ukraine]. He was a director and writer, known for Night Train (1959), Mother Joan of the Angels (1961) and Death of a President (1977). He was married to Lucyna Winnicka, Maria Güntner and ...

Born in Hvizdets (west Ukraine) in 1922.

20. Aleksandr Khanzhonkov

Producer | Oborona Sevastopolya

Aleksandr Khanzhonkov was the world's first maker of a cartoon film, the first maker of a full-time feature film in Russia and the founder of the first Russian film studio.

He was born Aleksandr Alekseevich Khanzhonkov on August 8, 1877, in the village of Khanzhonkovo, Donetsk province, Russian ...

21. Dmitrij Kharitonov

Producer | Psicha, die Tänzerin Katharina der Großen

Dmitrij Kharitonov was born in 1886. He was a producer, known for Psicha, die Tänzerin Katharina der Großen (1923), Stolichnyi iad (1917) and Azra (1919). He died on August 21, 1946.

22. Mila Kunis

Actress | Black Swan

Milena Markovna "Mila" Kunis is a Ukrainian-American actress born to a Jewish family in Chernivtsi, Ukraine.

Her mother, Elvira, is a physics teacher, her father, Mark Kunis, is a mechanical engineer, and she has an older brother named Michael. Her family moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1991. ...

23. Olga Kurylenko

Actress | Oblivion

Olga Kurylenko is a Ukrainian-French actress and model, went from sharing a cramped flat with her aunt, uncle, grandparents and cousin to starring as a Bond girl opposite Daniel Craig.

She was born Olga Konstantinovna Kurylenko on November 14, 1979, in Berdyansk, Ukraine, Soviet Union. Her mother, ...

24. Anatole Litvak

Director | The Snake Pit

The distinguished film director Anatole Litvak was born in the Ukrainian city of Kiev, the son of Jewish parents. His very first job was as a stage hand. In 1915, he became an actor, performing at a little-known experimental theater in St. Petersburg, Russia. As a teenager, he witnessed the 1917 ...

25. Sergey Loznitsa

Director | Donbass

Sergei Loznitsa, Ukrainian film maker, was born on September, 5th 1964 in Baranovichi, USSR. He grew up in Kiev, and in 1987 graduated from the Kiev Polytechnic with a degree in Applied Mathematics. In 1987-1991 Sergei worked as a scientist at the Kiev Institute of Cybernetics, specializing in ...

Born in Belarus (USSR), educated in Ukraine and wence he received a Ukrainian citizenship after the collapse of the Soviet Union (in 2022 he was expelled from the Ukrainian Film Academy for reportedly pro-Russian position which asked not to consider him a Ukrainian filmmaker).

26. Leonard Nimoy

Actor | Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Leonard Simon Nimoy was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Dora (Spinner) and Max Nimoy, who owned a barbershop. His parents were Ukrainian Jewish immigrants. Raised in a tenement and acting in community theaters since age eight, Nimoy did not make his Hollywood debut until he was 20, with a bit ...

27. Jack Palance

Actor | City Slickers

Jack Palance quite often exemplified evil incarnate on film, portraying some of the most intensely feral villains witnessed in 1950s westerns and melodrama. Enhanced by his tall, powerful build, icy voice, and piercing eyes, he earned two "Best Supporting Actor" nominations early in his career. It ...

28. Otto Preminger

Actor | Stalag 17

Otto Ludwig Preminger was born in Wiznitz, Bukovina, Austria-Hungary. His father was a prosecutor, and Otto originally intended to follow his father into a law career; however, he fell in love with the theater in his 20's and became one of the most imaginative stage producers and directors. He was ...

Born in Vyzhnytsia, western Ukraine, in 1905.

29. Alexander Rodnyansky

Producer | Leviafan

Alexander Rodnyansky was born on July 2nd of 1961 in Kiev. He graduated from Kiev's National University of Film, Theatre and Television as a documentary director. In 1983 he started his career at "KievNauchFilm" studio.

As a director Mr. Rodnyansky won numerous awards for his documentaries. From ...

Born in 1961 in Kyiv, he was educated in Ukraine but emigrated to the West where he also continues working with Russian filmmakers.

30. Ivanna Sakhno

Actress | Ahsoka

Ivanna Sakhno was born on November 14, 1997 in Kyiv, Ukraine. She is an actress and producer, known for Ahsoka (2023), The Reunion (2022) and High Fidelity (2020).

31. Larisa Shepitko

Director | Voskhozhdenie

Larisa Shepitko was born on January 6, 1938 in Bakhmut, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine]. She was a director and writer, known for The Ascent (1977), Heat (1963) and You and Me (1971). She was married to Elem Klimov. She died on July 2, 1979 in near Redkino, Kalinin Oblast...

Born in Bakhmut (now one of the key sites of the war).

32. Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi

Director | Plemya

Born in Kyiv (Ukraine) in 1974, Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi graduated from the filmmaking department of the Kyiv National I. K. Karpenko-Kary Theatre, Cinema and Television University, majoring in feature film directing. He has worked at various Ukrainian film studios in Kyiv (such as the Dovzhenko ...

A son of Ukrainian writer Mykhailo Slaboshpytskyi who was born in Ukraine, married a Russian woman and emmigrated from Ukraine in 2010s.

33. Liev Schreiber

Actor | Spotlight

Liev (pronounced Lee-ev) Schreiber was born in San Francisco. His mother, Heather (Milgram), is a painter, and his father, Tell Schreiber (Tell Carroll Schreiber III), is a theatrical actor who had a small role in The Keeper (1976). His mother is from a working-class Jewish family from Poland and ...

34. Steven Spielberg

Producer | Schindler's List

One of the most influential personalities in the history of cinema, Steven Spielberg is Hollywood's best known director and one of the wealthiest filmmakers in the world. He has an extraordinary number of commercially successful and critically acclaimed credits to his name, either as a director, ...

A grandson of two Jewish grandfathers from Ukraine.

35. William Shatner

Actor | Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

William Shatner has notched up an impressive 70-plus years in front of the camera, displaying heady comedic talent and being instantly recognizable to several generations of cult television fans as the square-jawed Captain James T. Kirk, commander of the starship U.S.S. Enterprise.

Shatner was born ...

36. Andrei Tarkovsky

Writer | Offret

The most famous Soviet film-maker since Sergei Eisenstein, Andrei Tarkovsky (the son of noted poet Arseniy Tarkovsky) studied music and Arabic in Moscow before enrolling in the Soviet film school VGIK. He shot to international attention with his first feature, Ivan's Childhood (1962), which won the...

A son of poet Arseny Tarkovsky of Kherson region.

37. Dimitri Tiomkin

Soundtrack | High Noon

Dimitri Tiomkin was a Russian Jewish composer who emigrated to America and became one of the most distinguished and best-loved music writers of Hollywood. He won a hallowed place in the pantheon of the most successful and productive composers in American film history, earning himself four Oscars ...

A Jewish born in Poltava.

38. Andrei Zagdansky

Director | Michail and Daniel

Award-winning documentary filmmaker Andrei Zagdansky was born on March 9, 1956 in Kiev, Ukraine, back then a part of the Soviet Union. He received a MFA with distinction from Kiev State University of Theatrical Arts. His first feature documentary, the seminal Interpretation of Dreams (1990), ...

A son of Evgeniy Zagdanskiy and Jewish mother who was born and educated in the USSR and in 1992 emigrated to the US.

39. Andrzej Zulawski

Writer | Possession

Born in Lvov, Ukraine; then he moved with his father Miroslaw Zulawski to Czechoslovakia and later to Poland. In the late 1950s, he studied cinema in France. In the 1960s, he was an assistant of the famous Polish film director Andrzej Wajda. His feature debut The Third Part of the Night (1971) was ...

40. Katheryn Winnick

Actress | Vikings

Award-winning actress, director, producer, Katheryn Winnick, is best known for starring and directing the critically acclaimed, Emmy award-winning television series "Vikings." Winnick made her directorial debut in sixth and final season which earned her "Best Director" at the 2020 WIN Awards. She ...

41. Natalie Wood

Actress | Rebel Without a Cause

Natalie Wood was an American actress of Russian and Ukrainian descent. She started her career as a child actress and eventually transitioned into teenage roles, young adult roles, and middle-aged roles. She drowned off Catalina Island on November 29, 1981 at age 43.

Wood was born July 20, 1938 in ...

Born as Natalie Zakharenko and used to live in Ukraine (Kharkiv), escaping with her parents to the US.

42. Grigoriy Kozintsev

Director | Gamlet

Grigori Mikhailovich Kozintsev was born on March 22, 1905, in Kiev, Russian Empire (now Kiev, Ukraine). His father, named Mikhail Kozintsev, was a medical doctor. Young Kozintsev studied at the Kiev Gymnazium. There, in 1919, he organized experimental theatre "Arlekin" together with his fellow ...

43. Aleksei Kapler

Writer | Lenin v oktyabre

Aleksei Kapler was born on September 28, 1904 in Kiev, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. He was a writer and director, known for Lenin in October (1937), Lenin in 1918 (1939) and Shakhta 12-28 (1931). He was married to Valentina Tokarskaya. He died on September 11, 1979 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now ...

44. Aleksandr Ptushko

Director | Kamennyy tsvetok

Aleksandr Ptushko was born on April 19, 1900 in Lugansk, Lugansk uyezd, Yekaterinoslav Governorate, Russian Empire [now Luhansk, Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine]. He was a director and writer, known for The Stone Flower (1946), Sadko (1953) and Ruslan i Lyudmila (1972). He died on March 6, 1973 in Moscow, ...

45. Aleksander Ford

Director | Piatka z ulicy Barskiej

Aleksander Ford was born on November 24, 1908 in Kiev, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. He was a director and writer, known for Five from Barska Street (1954), Knights of the Teutonic Order (1960) and The Eighth Day of the Week (1958). He was married to Eleanor Griswold, Olga Minska and Janina ...

46. Konstantin Lopushanskiy

Director | Gadkie lebedi

Konstantin Lopushanskiy was born on June 12, 1947 in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine]. He is a director and writer, known for The Ugly Swans (2006), Visitor of a Museum (1989) and Dead Man's Letters (1986).

47. Boris Sagal

Director | The Omega Man

Boris Sagal was born on October 18, 1923 in Yekaterinoslav, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine]. He was a director and writer, known for The Omega Man (1971), The Name of the Game (1968) and Rich Man, Poor Man (1976). He was married to Marge Champion and Sara Macon. He died on May 22,...

48. Lucian Pintilie

Director | Terminus paradis

Lucian Pintilie was born on November 9, 1933 in Tarutino, Bessarabia, Romania [now Tarutyne, Odessa Oblast, Ukraine]. He was a director and writer, known for Next Stop Paradise (1998), Sunday at Six (1966) and The Oak (1992). He was married to Clody Bertola. He died on May 16, 2018 in Bucharest, ...

49. Pyotr Todorovskiy

Director | Ankor, eshchyo ankor!

Pyotr Todorovskiy was born on August 26, 1925 in Bobrynets, Zinovievsk Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Kirovohrad Oblast, Ukraine]. He was a director and writer, known for Encore, Once More Encore! (1992), Wartime Romance (1983) and Vernost (1965). He was married to Mira Todorovskaya and Nadeshda ...

50. Halyna Hutchins

Cinematographer | Treacle

Halyna Hutchins was born on April 9, 1979 in Zhytomyrska, Ukraine. She was a cinematographer, known for Treacle (2019), Archenemy (2020) and Crossing Point (2016). She was married to Matthew Hutchins. She died on October 21, 2021 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.

51. Jack Garfein

Director | Something Wild

Czechoslovakian-born Jack Garfein survived imprisonment in the Auschwitz concentration camp during WW2 and came to the US at age 15. After a few years of college, he became a stage actor, then a director. After his Broadway directorial debut in 1953, he joined the Actors Studio, and married one of ...

52. Antonín Moskalyk

Director | Dita Saxová

Antonín Moskalyk was born on November 11, 1930 in Chust, Ukraine. He was a director and writer, known for Dita Saxová (1968), Cops and Robbers (1997) and Délka polibku devadesát (1965). He died on January 27, 2006 in Brno, Czech Republic.

53. Ludvík Ráza

Director | Tajemství Ocelového mesta

Ludvík Ráza was born on September 3, 1929 in Mukachevo, Czechoslovakia. He was a director and writer, known for The Secret of Steel City (1979), Poslední propadne peklu (1982) and Neco je ve vzduchu (1981). He died on October 4, 2000 in Prague, Czech Republic.

54. Steven Geray

Actor | Gilda

Diminutive, gentle-featured character actor, who specialised in playing meek, reticent or kindly gentlemen, usually of Gallic, Germanic or Eastern European backgrounds. Istvan Gyergyay was born in the old Austro/Hungarian town of Ungvar (present-day Uzhgorod) and studied at Budapest University. His...

55. Roxy Toporowych

Producer | Julia Blue

Roxy Toporowych is an award-winning filmmaker based in NYC. Her narrative directing debut, Julia Blue, was written and directed while she was a Fulbright Scholar living in Ukraine.

Roxy has been chosen as an AFI DWW+ Fellow 2023/24. She is an IFP Narrative Lab Directing Fellow 2016 and the recipient...