Katja Gauriloff

• Name — Katja Gauriloff • Born — 6 December 1972 • Birthplace — Inari, Finland • Occupation — * filmmaker • director • Years Active — 1998–present

Gauriloff was born in Inari to a Finnish father and a Skolt Sámi mother. Although Gauriloff is of Skolt Sámi heritage on her mother's side, she grew up in Rovaniemi, far away from the main areas the Skolt community lives in around Lake Inari. As she did not grow up in an environment where Skolt Sámi was spoken and it was not spoken at home, she did not learn the language. In spite of this, Gauriloff has developed a strong identity as a Skolt and has explored her heritage through two of her documentaries. In 2016, the cultural association of the Skolts Saaʹmi Nueʹtt and the Skolt village meeting named her Skolt of the Year for her work on Kaisa's Enchanted Forest. From 2000 to 2004, she studied directing at the Tampere University of Applied Sciences at the School of Art and Media.

Gauriloff began her career in the film industry in 1998.

Two of Gauriloff's documentaries, A Shout into the Wind and Canned Dreams, have been awarded Finnish State Quality Support for cinema productions (elokuvataiteen laatutuki). In 2013, Gauriloff and Joonas Berghäll directed the documentary Voimanlähde about four women and their fight against breast cancer for the Pink Ribbon campaign by the Cancer Foundation of Finland.

A Shout into the Wind was not only Gauriloff's debut film, it was her first film about the Skolt Sámi community. The film documents the struggles of a Skolt family near Sevettijärvi to preserve their traditions in today's world. At first, it was difficult to find funding for the film and it looked like it would not be produced at all. The Finnish Film Foundation and the Promotion Centre For Audiovisual Culture AVEK originally declined requests to fund the movie, but National Geographic gave Gauriloff a seed grant from its All Roads Film Project. The world premiere of A Shout into the Wind was screened at National Geographic's All Roads Film Festival in 2007.

Gauriloff's next documentary, Canned Dreams is a full-length film that follows the making of a can of ravioli through the entire chain of production, concentrating on the individuals contributing to its production. Unusual for this type of documentary, it was even shown in commercial movie theaters in Finland and Denmark. In addition, it was shown at the DocPoint Documentary Movie Festival in Helsinki, Finland and was selected to be shown in the Culinary Cinema programme at the 2012 Berlin International Film Festival.

Gauriloff's documentary about the friendship between her great-grandmother Kaisa Taisia Gauriloff, a Skolt Sámi storyteller, and the Swiss writer Robert Crottet premiered at the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä, Finland in June 2016.

• Sincere intentions (Buorit áigumusat), 2004 • A Shout into the Wind (Huuto tuuleen), 2007 • Canned Dreams (Säilöttyjä unelmia) 2011 • Voimanlähde, 2013 • Kaisa's Enchanted Forest (Mannu mieʹcc Kaiʹssi, Kuun metsän Kaisa), 2016

Katja Gauriloff is recorded with the occupation film director. Recorded as having received Skolt of the Year Award, Skábmagovat Prize and Finnish National Prize.

In 2017, it was announced that Gauriloff would be directing her first full-length fiction feature film, the film adaptation of Sofi Oksanen's Baby Jane. The movie premiered on International Women's Day 2019.

• The Last Day of His Life, 2003 • Pei'vv paast, 2004 • Baby Jane, 2019 • Jeʹvida, 2023