Nicolas Wadimoff

Nicolas Wadimoff was born in Geneva in 1964. After studying film in Montreal, he presented his first film, Le bol (1991), at the Locarno International Film Festival. Following Les gants d’or d’Akka (1992), he co-directed the feature film Clandestins (1997) with Quebec filmmaker Denis Chouinard. The film received numerous awards at festivals around the world. From then on, Wadimoff pursued a dual career as a director and producer. Following L’accord (2005), he directed Aisheen (2009), which received several awards at the Berlinale. In 2012, Opération Libertad was selected for the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes. In 2015, he received the prestigious Soleure Prize for his documentary Spartiates. The following year, he presented Jean Ziegler, l’optimisme de la volonté as a world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival. In 2018, L’Apollon de Gaza opened Locarno’s Critics’ Week and was selected for numerous festivals worldwide. Between 2019 and 2023, Nicolas Wadimoff headed the Cinema Department at HEAD – Genève, while continuing to work as a director, producer, and teacher. In 2020, he co-directed Maisonneuve – À l’école du vivre-ensemble with Emmanuelle Walter, a documentary filmed inside a Montreal school marked by its rich cultural diversity. In 2025, he co-directed UNRWA, 75 Years of a Provisional History with Lyana Saleh. Over more than thirty years of filmmaking, Nicolas Wadimoff has developed a body of work at the intersection of documentary and fiction, marked by a sustained interest in political upheaval, conflict, migration, and forms of individual and collective resistance. From Gaza to Geneva, and from Marseille to Montreal, his cinema places at its centre those whose intimate lives intersect with the fractures of history.