Directing

Max Bessmertny

Max grew up in an artistic family with an accomplished painter father and a classical pianist mother, surrounded by a multicultural environment with friends and family speaking Russian, Portuguese, English and a little bit of Cantonese. He was inspired to view the world in a unique way which is reflected in all his film projects. After graduating from New York University Tisch School of Arts Masters in Film, Max wrote, directed and produced the noir short "Tricycle Thief" which was the first 'made in Macao' film to World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2014 and won the 2015 Kodak Gold Award. His award-winning shorts include "Dirty Laundry" which premiered at We Are One (Tribeca x Youtube Film Festival in 2020) and "The Handover", a 30-minute black-and-white comedy which won best local entry at the Macao International Short Film Festival. In 2022 Max embarked on his first feature film journey with "The Violin Case", a story inspired by a true incident that happened to his father many years ago. The film was independently fundraised and shot during COVID when the whole world was under lockdown. It features an entirely local cast and crew and a childhood friend of Max's as lead actor - Kelsey Wilhelm. The storytelling style was inspired by the movie "After Hours", which parallels with the hero in "The Violin Case" who goes on a journey around the city in desperate search of his lost artwork.