Sophie Barthes was born in France and grew up in the Middle East and South America. She moved to New York in 2000 in order to study international relations and film at Columbia University. Three years later she graduated with a documentary film about UNICEF literacy programmes, which she worked on in Yemen with cinematographer Andrij Parekh. Together they subsequently made a short film in Ukraine entitled Snowblink (2004). In 2006 she wrote and directed the film Happiness, screened to critical acclaim at Montreal and Sundance, and at the Prague Shorts festival. Her feature film debut Cold Souls began its journey to the Sundance competition 2009 in the festival Institute's Writers Lab and corresponding Directors Lab. Sophie Barthes was named one of Filmmaker magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film" for the year 2007.
MFF Karlovy Vary
