Aiste Dirziute
Film actress
Lithuania
Aiste Dirziute is a Lithuanian film actress, best known for her role as Auste in “The Summer of Sangaile” (dir. Alante Kavaite). The film was premiered as a Day One Movie in Sundance Film festival in 2015, in which Alante Kavaite earned the best director’s prize. The success led to a year full of festivals. After “The Summer of Sangaile” premiere in Europe at the Berlinale (Panorama) in 2015, Dirziute was noticed by film critics and became the first Lithuanian actress named as one of the European Shooting Stars. The same year she graduated from Lithuanian Music and Theater Academy, starred in Lithuanian films “Kings’ Shift” (dir. Ignas Miskinis), “Back” (dir. Gabriele Urbonaite) and made her debut in Russian industry as Marina Malich in the biographical drama “Kharms”, directed by Ivan Bolotnikov.
In 2016 she made her first English language film with a role as Joana in “Ashes in the Snow” (dir. Marius A. Markevicius). Later that year she started shootings in her second English language film with a lead role as Lauga in historical drama “The Pagan King” (dir. Aigars Grauba). At the same year she made her debut as a jury member in European Film Festival Palic (International Jury) which was followed by jury duties in Minsk IFF Listapad (International Jury of the Feature Films Competition “Youth on the March”) alongside Denis Cote and Roberto Cueto. Dirziute finished her 2016 as a presenter of Best Animated Feature Film in European Film Awards in Wroclaw.
2017 she started with participation in Berlinale Talents and moving to London. In June her film “Kharms” was premiered as a part of the main competition in Shanghai IFF, in which film earned Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography awards. In July she finished her shootings in “The Pagan King” and it was released very successfully in 2018. She finished her 2017 as a jury member at Tallinn Black Nights IFF alongside Takeo Hisamatsu, Guillaume de Seille etc. In 2019 she made a debut in blockbuster “Men in Black 4: International” and finished her year hosting European Film Awards in Berlin. Between auditions and shootings she is traveling through festivals to present her films and working in film festival juries.
Aiste started to work on her own script and debuted as a co-writer of the “The Passion” (co-written with Germán de la Fuente). At the moment she is preparing for her own script. Aiste Dirziute is not only an actress and a scriptwriter, but also known feminist, activist and fighter for equal rights and LGBTQ+. She was one of the initiators of petition to Lithuanian Film Center as a response to their silence to #metoo in Lithuania, that petition led to more education about sexual harassment, legal changes in contracts to protect the people and more safe sets.
