Michal Kosakowski is a Polish director, writer, producer, director of photography, and editor of numerous short and experimental films, documentaries, video installations, and feature films. Born in 1975 in Szczecin, Poland, he started making films at the age of 10 and by 18 had already directed and produced over 20 shorts.
Kosakowski attended the Academy of Commerce in Vienna, graduating in 1995, and then studied film production at the Vienna Film Academy. From 1997 to 2000, he attended the artists' workshop Fabrica in Italy, where he collaborated with the Italian photographer Oliviero Toscani and experimented with new ways of visual communication.
In 2000, Kosakowski returned to Vienna and continued his creative work in the commercial area as a concept developer and film editor. He then founded the film production company nosugar added in 2003, focusing on documentaries, artist portraits, music films, commercials, and experimental films.
Kosakowski has worked on numerous projects, including the award-winning films Sleepers and Gipsy Express, as well as the documentaries The Heart of It and Just Like the Movies, which explores the crossovers between Christmas and war. He has also directed the short film Wait a Minute and the documentary The Inquisitive Museum.
In 2006, Kosakowski moved to Munich, Germany, where he intensified his artistic collaboration with the Austrian artist and curator Uli Aigner. Their film projects have been hosted by various renowned venues, including the Kunsthalle Wien, Centre Pompidou Paris, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Kosakowski's passion for music has triggered several music film productions with and about the MKO, the violinist KP Werani, and the Dutch musician Francis Kuipers. He has also worked with the Italian composer Paolo Marzocchi, with whom he received several awards for their experimental film Just Like the Movies.
Since 2004, Kosakowski has been working as a lecturer, teaching experimental film and theory of filmmaking at the MD.H in Munich. He has also curated the film program for the concert event series TrioCoriolis - Hörblicke 21 and has been a jury member at several international film festivals.
Between 1996 and 2007, Kosakowski created the video-installation Fortynine, which resulted in his first feature-length film Zero Killed in 2011. In 2015, his production company Kosakowski Films produced the anthology feature film German Angst, in which he directed his episode Make a Wish alongside legendary Berlin underground director Jörg Buttgereit and the Giallo expert Andreas Marschall.
Kosakowski is currently working on several projects, including the art film-exhibition-installation project Dark Tourism, which examines the modern forms of commemoration of WWII and the Holocaust. He lives and works with his wife Uli Aigner and their four children in Berlin.
