Russia

Nicolay Bem was born in 1977 in Neryoungri, Yakutia. He began working as a director in the 2000s for Krasnoyarsk television. In 2007, he created SiberiaDOC, a Franco-Russian initiative to develop independent cinema in Siberia, which aims to create movies outside of the major cultural centers of Moscow and Saint Petersburg. As director of the Siberian Independent Film Studio, he went on to lead the Siberian School of New Cinema project in Krasnoyarsk, an educational project offering courses in fiction and documentary filmmaking. In 2021, he was awarded the Russian Knowledge Society Prize « For his contribution to education in the field of culture and the arts. » His latest documentary film, Kotlovan, received the award for Best Editing at the DOKer International Documentary Film Festival in Moscow in 2025.