VITALY MANSKIY was born in 1963 in Lviv, Ukraine.
In the 1982 he entered the All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) (S.E. Medynskiy's workroom). His first work in the world of cinematography appeared in 1989, and since that time he has shot more than 30 films. His works were presented at more than 500 international film festivals, among which we can site forums in Cannes, San-Sebastian, Rotterdam, Karlovy Vary, Berlin, Amsterdam, Moscow, Oberhausen, San-Francisco, Lokarno, Munich, Toronto, Montreal, Turin, Krakov, Rio de Janeiro, Yamagata, Lisbon and many others.
He was awarded with more than 100 awards and prizes including Silver Globe of Karlovy Vary IFF, Silver dove of Leipzig festival, the award for best director and special jury prize of Tallinn Black Nights IFF, Grand Prix at Warszaw, Jihlava, Trieste, Huesca IFF, Best for best director at Lokarno, DocAviv (Israel), Prix court metrage Vision du Reel - Nyon, Golden Spire in San Francisco, Grand Prix of Huesca Film Festival, The National award of cinema critics and press Beliy Slon (White Elephant, Russia), Russian Film Academy Award Nika, Latvian National Film Prize, etc. His films were not once shown on the leading channels in practically all European countries, as well as in Japan, Australia, China, Canada, South Korea and other countries.
Since 1996 Manskiy has been working on a project that aims at archivation of amateur private video files that were shot in the times of the former USSR from 30's till 90's of the ХХth century. Thus we have the unique archives of one and only films – evidences of the Soviet society's private life.
Films produced by Manskiy were awarded with numerous awards, including the IDFA Prize in Amsterdam 2006, TEFI award, Grand Prix of the Russia film festival, Le Grand Prix du Cinema du Reel-Festival International Cinema du reel, (Paris, France), Silver Dove at the international film festival in Leipzig, the Laurel Branch award and others.
As of the year 1995 he worked in Television. Manskiy was the author and producer of the project "Real cinema" ("Реальное кино") that was on air from 1995 on the First Russian Channel, where one could see premières of the best documentaries. In the same year he became head of the Film broadcasting Service, and then the first General producer of the TV channel "REN - TV", on which hundreds of best documentary films from all over the world were broadcasted. In 1999 he went to the TV Russia, where he became Head of Production and broadcasting of documentaries. Being a director, he produced more than 300 films that were broadcasted on TV Russia and other Russian TV channels like First Channel, NTV, STS, Culture, 7TV.
In 2000, he was one of the initiators of the establishment, and since 2006 he has become the General Director of the National Laurel Branch Award that is handed for the best documentary films. Manskiy is of the founders of the guild of Non-fiction cinema and television of Russia. In 2009 mansky together with Eldar Razanov, Aleksey German, Aleksandr Sokurov, Yuriy Norshteyn and others founded alternative Russian Film Union.
Vitaly Manskiy is the member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (US), the Ukrainian Film Academy, the National Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences of Russia, the Russian Academy of Television.
Mansky is Deputy Chief of Russian Film Union, General producer of National Film Award "Lavrovaya Vetv" (Laurel Branch). V. Manskiy is the founder and President of Artdocfest — Russian Open Documentary Film Festival for Russian-language creative documentaries (activity stopped in 2022 due to censorship in Russia and war of Russia against Ukraine). Founder of IDFF Artdocfest/Riga which takes place in Latvia since 2020.
Natalia Manskaya, spouse, General Manager of Vertov Production Company. 2 children – Polina, studied producing at MHAT, Nika – designer.
Since 2014 lives and works in Latvia.
