About the author

Mindaugas Survila, the director and cinematographer of "The Ancient Woods" had a dream to create this movie since he was in a fifth grade. A long journey was waiting for him towards this dream. Initially he took pictures of nature. While in school, Mindaugas participated in various Young Scientists Conferences in Lithuania and once - in Bergen, where he introduced his scientific observations of nature by a number of photos.

Later, Mindaugas joined Vilnius University, where he was granted a Bachelor’s degree in biology. At the end of his graduate studies of Ecology and Environmental Management Mindaugas finished his first movie Meeting the Ospreys" (“Susitikimas su Žuvininkais“), which was awarded with a national Petras Abukevičius name prize for the best Lithuanian film about nature.

Seeking to get more knowledge about filmmaking Mindaugas worked as a cameraman assistant, still photographer, second cameraman, extras casting in various films of famous Lithuanian and international filmmakers (Sergey Loznitsa, Šarūnas Bartas, Audrius Stonys, etc.).

At the same time he began making his second film, the docu-poem called "The Field of Magic" ("Stebuklų laukas"). For him this film was the cinematographic school because he was able to acquire the experience from the team of some of the best cinema professionals in Lithuania working with him (a montage director, a sound director, an operator, a colourist, etc.).

The latter movie attracted not only a huge number of audiences to the Lithuanian cinema theatres, but also began to travel around the prestigious documentary film festivals.

Mindaugas has been purposefully preparing for making “The Ancient Woods” for 18 years. He felt that it was going to be particularly difficult to create. However, Mindaugas Survila believed that with his experience and the help of a reliable team anything is possible. He hoped that “The Ancient Woods” would not only attract a large number of people to the cinema theatres, but would also stimulate discussions on the theme of real values in life.

Screenings and Awards

“The Ancient Woods” began its “journey” in November 2017 with World’s premiere in one of world’s biggest and most prestigious International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) as a part of First Appearance competition.

Mindaugas Survila and the editor Danielius Kokanauskis with Andrea van Pol.

Starting with this biggest documentary fest, “The Ancient Woods” visited many other international film festivals. One of the greatest and most memorable experience was the screening of "The Ancient Woods" in Sydney film festival where 900 people gathered in one cinema hall to see the film.

National premiere took place on the 29th March as a closing movie for prestigious international Vilnius Film Festival. Starting from March 30th, the movie began its local “journey” and was shown by largest cinemas in Lithuania. It already broke a record for being the most visited documentary in Lithuanian history, gathering more than 52 thousand people and still remaining at top 20 after 4 months of screening.

"The Ancient Woods" have already received several National and International awards for best documentary, best sound and cinematography.