Michal Kosakowski

ARTIST | FILMMAKER | PRODUCER

Michal Kosakowski • Photo © Tom Wagner

Michal Kosakowski is a Polish-German filmmaker and media artist whose work explores the boundaries between documentary, fiction, and experimental cinema. His oeuvre challenges societal and moral limits, blending theoretical inquiry with innovative narrative forms.

He studied film at Fabrica – the Benetton Research Centre for Communication in Italy, where he collaborated with renowned photographer Oliviero Toscani on a range of film and media projects addressing cultural, political, and humanitarian issues. His short film Just Like the Movies (2006), which received the Best Short Film award at the Milano Film Festival, is widely used in academic contexts and serves as teaching material at universities and colleges worldwide. From 2008 to 2011, he taught experimental film and film theory at Media Design University in Munich. He has also served on juries at international film festivals and curated film programs.

Kosakowski’s work spans award-winning experimental films, documentaries, video installations, and genre cinema. His video installation Fortynine (2007), involving over 160 participants from 23 countries, formed the basis for his feature-length documentary Zero Killed (2012), which received the Best Documentary award at the Chicago Underground Film Festival. He is also co-director and producer of the internationally acclaimed horror anthology German Angst (2015), shown at over 40 festivals including Rotterdam and Sitges – reflecting his continued interest in exploring the narrative and aesthetic potential of genre film.

Since 2000, Michal Kosakowski has collaborated closely with visual artist and partner Uli Aigner. For her lifelong art project One Million, Kosakowski Films has been responsible for the conception and production of all related films and photography since 2015.

His latest film, Holofiction, is a 102-minute experimental work and part of the ten-part multimedia art project Dark Tourism, which investigates contemporary forms of remembrance culture through film, photography, and installation.