Aki Olavi Kaurismäki (Finnish: [ˈɑki ˈkɑu̯rismæki]; born April 4,1957; Orimattila) is a Finnish film director, screenwriter, producer, editor and actor. He is best known for the award-winning Drifting Clouds (1996), The Man Without a Past (2002), Le Havre (2011), The Other Side of Hope (2017) and Fallen Leaves (2023), as well as for the mockumentary Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989). He is described as Finland's best-known film director. He is the younger brother of director and screenwriter Mika Kaurismäki. After graduating in media studies from the University of Tampere, Kaurismäki worked as a bricklayer, postman, and dish-washer, long before pursuing his interest in cinema, first as a critic, and later as a screenwriter & director. He started his career as a co-screenwriter and actor in films made by his older brother, Mika Kaurismäki. He played the main role in Mika's film The Liar (1981). Together they founded the production company Villealfa Filmproductions and later the Midnight Sun Film Festival. His debut as an independent director was Crime and Punishment (1983), an adaptation of Dostoyevsky's novel set in modern Helsinki. He gained worldwide attention with Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989). Kaurismäki's film Ariel (1988) was entered into the 16th Moscow International Film Festival where it won the Prix FIPRESCI. Kaurismäki's most acclaimed film has been The Man Without a Past, which won the Grand Prix and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category in 2003. However, Kaurismäki refused to attend the Oscar ceremony, asserting that he did not feel like partying in a country that was in a state of war. Kaurismäki's next film, Lights in the Dusk, was also chosen to be Finland's nominee for best foreign-language film, but Kaurismäki again boycotted the awards and refused the nomination, as a protest against U.S. President George W. Bush's foreign policy. In 2002 Kaurismäki also boycotted the 40th New York Film Festival in a show of solidarity with the Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, who was not given a US visa in time for the festival. Kaurismäki's 2017 film The Other Side of Hope won the Silver Bear for Best Director award at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival. At the same festival he also announced that it would be his last film, although the retirement was short-lived as he began filming Fallen Leaves in 2022, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023.

Filmography

• 2024Jean-Pierre Léaud: The Child of Cinema — Thanks
• 2023Fallen Leaves — Director, Writer, Producer
• 2017The Other Side of Hope — Director, Writer, Producer
• 2016John From — Thanks
• 2015Dirty Hands — Director, Writer
• 2013Bluesia Pieksämäen asemalla — Director, Writer, Producer
• 2012Historic Centre — Director, Producer, Editor, Screenplay
• 2012Tavern Man — Producer, Writer, Director, Editor
• 2011Barzakh — Producer
• 2011Le Havre — Director, Writer, Producer
• 2010Bad Family — Producer
• 2009Jeanne d'Arc — Producer
• 2008Calamari Union — Writer
• 2008Helsinki, Forever — Thanks
• 2007The Foundry — Director, Writer, Editor
• 2007To Each His Own Cinema — Director, Producer, Writer
• 2006Lights in the Dusk — Editor, Director, Producer, Writer
• 2004Aaltra — Aaltra's Boss
• 2004Bico — Director, Writer, Producer
• 2004Visions of Europe — Director, Writer, Producer, Editor
• 2004Whisky — Thanks
• 2002Dogs Have No Hell — Director, Writer, Editor, Producer
• 2002Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet — Director, Writer, Producer, Editor
• 2002The Man Without a Past — Producer, Director, Writer
• 2001The Classic — Producer
• 2000A Stone Left Unturned — Producer
• 2000Belief, Hope and Blood — Producer
• 2000VÄNÄ
• 1999Juha — Director, Screenplay, Editor, Producer
• 1997Vaiennut kylä — Producer
• 1996Drifting Clouds — Producer, Editor, Director, Writer
• 1995Iron Horsemen — Cadillac Man, Producer, Assistant Director
• 1994Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses — Factory Worker Imitating Chaplin (uncredited), Director, Screenplay, Story, Producer, Editor
• 1994Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatjana — Director, Writer, Producer, Editor
• 1994Total Balalaika Show — Writer, Director, Producer
• 1993Kaksi vanhaa varasta — Producer
• 1993Our Father… — Producer
• 1993Ripa Hits the Skids — Producer
• 1992La Vie de Bohème — Director, Producer, Screenplay
• 1992Leningrad Cowboys: Those Were the Days — Director, Writer, Producer, Editor
• 1992Shit Happens — Estonian, Producer, Editor
• 1992The Parrot Man — Editor
• 1992The Prodigal Son — Producer
• 1990I Hired a Contract Killer — Sunglasses Seller (uncredited), Screenplay, Producer, Director, Editor, Story
• 1990The Match Factory Girl — Director, Producer, Editor, Writer
• 1989Leningrad Cowboys Go America — Director, Screenplay, Story, Producer
• 1988Ariel — Director, Writer, Producer
• 1987Hamlet Goes Business — Director, Producer, Screenplay
• 1987Macbeth — Producer
• 1987Tilinteko — Writer, Producer
• 1986Kuningas lähtee Ranskaan — Gaffer
• 1986Morena — Production Sound Mixer
• 1986Rocky VI — Magazine Photographer, Writer, Producer, Editor, Director
• 1986Shadows in Paradise — Hotel Receptionist (uncredited), Director, Writer
• 1985Calamari Union — Hearse Driver (uncredited), Writer, Director, Editor, Producer
• 1985Rosso — Dialogue, Gaffer
• 1985Viimeiset rotannahat
• 1985Ylösnousemus — Taksikuski
• 1984The Clan: Tale of the Frogs — Screenplay, Assistant Director
• 1983Crime and Punishment — Director, Screenplay
• 1983Huhtikuu on kuukausista julmin — Ville Alfa
• 1982Jackpot 2 — Assistant Director, Costume Design, Production Design, Smoke Artist, Writer
• 1982The Worthless — Ville Alfa, Production Design, Dialogue, Assistant Director, Writer
• 1981The Liar — Ville Alfa, Writer
• 1981The Saimaa Gesture — Self - Interviewer (uncredited), Producer, Director, Writer

Appearances as themselves (17)

• 2023Cinéma Laika — Self
• 2021The Dinosaur — Self
• 2018Aki and Peter — Himself
• 2017Plankton Salesmen — Self (archive footage)
• 2016Peter von Bagh — Self
• 2015Temples of Dreams — Self
• 2015Valokeilassa Atte Blom — Self
• 2014Il était une fois... Le Havre — himself
• 2012A Special Day — Self
• 2011Bohemian Eyes — Self
• 2008Critic — Self
• 2001Aki Kaurismäki — Self
• 2001Léaud l'unique — Self - filmmaker
• 1995I Am Curious, Film — Self
• 1993Talking with Ozu — Self
• 1992Where Is Musette? — Self
• 1991Jonathan Ross Presents for One Week Only: Aki Kaurismäki — Self