Damjan Kozole was born in 1964, Brežice, Slovenia (then Yugoslavia). At the age of 22 he made his debut with a low-budget film The Fatal Telephone, one of the first independent films in the former Yugoslavia.
His feature film Spare Parts (2003 – a Film Movement release) won a nomination for the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival (IFF) in 2003. The film won several international awards and was among candidates, selected by the European Film Academy, for the best European film of that year. British film critic Peter Bradshaw wrote for the Guardian that Spare Parts was "one of the most powerful and provocative films of the year".
In 2004, Kozole participated in the international omnibus Visions of Europe (2004) together with 24 other European directors (among others with Fatih Akin, Sharunas Bartas, Peter Greenaway, Aki Kaurismaeki and Bela Tarr)
In 2005, a retrospective of his feature films was hosted by the American Film Institute. Films were shown in Washington, DC (AFI Silver), Chicago, New York, Boston, Cleveland, Vancouver and in Ottawa. His feature film Labour Equals Freedom (2005) premiered at the Locarno IFF and was awarded the Golden Palm and Best director award at Valencia IFF in 2006.
His eighth feature film Forever (2008) premiered at the Rotterdam IFF 2008, while his feature film, the international co-production A Call Girl was completed in April 2009. Kozole is one of the most prominent Slovenian film directors. He is a voting member of the European Film Academy.
Film Movement
