Vinko Möderndorfer

Vinko Möderndorfer was born in 1958 in Celje, Slovenia. He studied at the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television (AGRFT) in Ljubljana. After the completion of his studies he began working in theatre on Slovenian stages and became the artistic director of the experimental theatre Glej, for which he was awarded the 1984 “Zlata ptica” theatre prize. To date he has directed over one hundred productions. As well, he is active as a film, television and radio director. Between 1989 and the present he has written over eighty radio plays, winning many awards for them. These plays have also been staged abroad and represented at Europe’s leading radio festivals. Möderndorfer’s complete works total over fifty published books of poetry, prose fiction (for adults and children), plays and essays.

For his work Möderndorfer has won many awards, both in Slovenia and internationally. He has won the Borštnik Award for directing, and, among other awards, he has received the Prešeren Fund Award (2000), the Marjan Rožanc Award for essays (2002) as well as the Grum Award (2012 and 2014). For his youth novel Kot v filmu (Like in a Film) he received the Mladinska knjiga publishing house’s “Modra ptica” (2013), the Slovenian Writers’ Association’s “Desetnica” (2014), as well as, in the same year, the daily newspaper Večer’s “Večernica” award for the best youth book. He is a member of the Slovenian Association of Dramatic Artists, of the Slovene Writers’ Association and of the Slovenian PEN centre.