
Eugene Kotlyarenko
Directing
Biography
Eugene Kotlyarenko is a Ukrainian-American film director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. His feature writing-directing work includes 0s & 1s (2011), A Wonderful Cloud (2015), Wobble Palace (2018), We Are (2020) and Spree (2020). Kotlyarenko was born in Odesa to a Jewish-Ukrainian family. He grew up in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn and on Long Island, attending Columbia University before moving to Los Angeles. In 2010, He made his directorial debut, SkyDiver (Instructional Video #4: Preparation for Mission), starring Kate Lyn Sheil, Lawrence Michael Levine, and Sophia Amoruso. The next year, He co-wrote, edited, and directed 0s & 1s, starring Morgan Krantz, Jeremy Blackman, Matty Cardarople, and Ahna O'Reilly. In 2012, He wrote, starred, and directed Feast of Burden, premiered at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. In 2015, A Wonderful Cloud, starring Kate Lyn Sheil, John Ennis, and himself, premiered at the SXSW Film Festival. In 2018, Kotlyarenko wrote, starred, and directed Wobble Palace starring Dasha Nekrasova, Jack Kilmer, and himself. The film premiered at the SXSW Film Festival to positive reviews with New York Times, critic Teo Bugbee praising the film as "[...] a sendup of broke-artist types that shimmers with abashed affection". A review on The Playlist by Lena Wilson echoed this sentiment, writing that it: "[...] perfectly reproduces a subculture, both visually and narratively". In 2020, Kotlyarenko wrote, produced, starred, and directed Spree starring Joe Keery, Sasheer Zamata, David Arquette, Kyle Mooney, Lala Kent and Mischa Barton, the film was executive produced by Drake. It premiered on January 24, 2020, at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival as part of the NEXT category, and was released theatrically and via video on demand in the United States on August 14, 2020, by RLJE Films. The same year, he wrote and directed We Are, starring Dasha Nekrasova, Keith Poulson, and Vishwam Velandy. In 2024, He wrote, starred, and directed The Code. It stars Dasha Nekrasova, Peter Vack, and Ivy Wolk, it premiered at the Fantasia International Film Festival. He has executive produced films such as How to Blow Up a Pipeline, Pet Shop Days, Rotting in the Sun, and the upcoming The Carpenter's Son. He has also produced films such as Harka, Magic Farm, Candelabra, and the upcoming Born to Kill.
Known For

A remote village in Roman-era Egypt explodes into spiritual warfare when a carpenter, his wife and their child are targeted by supernatural forces.
The Carpenter's Son

When an aspiring actress in a military role-playing facility falls in love with a soldier cast as an insurgent, their unsimulated emotions threaten to derail the performance.
Atropia

Eager to impress his activist crush, a wealthy New York teenager follows an online connection to Texas, where he's convinced he can stop an act of extreme violence.
Our Hero, Balthazar

Desperate for an online following, a rideshare driver has figured out a deadly plan to go viral and he will stop at nothing to get his five minutes of fame.
Spree

Filmmaking icon Agnès Varda, the award-winning director regarded by many as the grandmother of the French new wave, turns the camera on herself with this unique autobiographical documentary. Composed of film excerpts and elaborate dramatic re-creations, Varda's self-portrait recounts the highs and lows of her professional career, the many friendships that affected her life and her longtime marriage to cinematic giant Jacques Demy.
The Beaches of Agnès

On the run from his unforgiving father in Mexico, Alejandro finds himself in New York City, where he meets Jack, a pet store employee with similar parental baggage. Together the two enter a whirlwind romance sending them down the rabbit hole of drugs and depravity in Manhattan’s underworld. When Alejandro’s past threatens to catch up with him, Jack is forced to choose between his family and a life on the run.
Pet Shop Days

A crew of young environmental activists execute a daring mission to sabotage an oil pipeline.
How to Blow Up a Pipeline

A filmmaker facing an existential crisis goes on a vacation to a Mexican gay nudist beach, where he meets a social media celebrity who convinces him to collaborate with him on his new TV show. But one disappears and another embarks on a wild journey through Mexico City to find him.
Rotting in the Sun

A misguided American documentary crew working for an edgy media company travels to rural Argentina to profile a local musician, but their ineptitude leads them into the wrong small town. As they collaborate with locals to attempt to fabricate a viral trend, unexpected connections blossom, while a pervasive crisis looms unacknowledged in the background.
Magic Farm

Ali is a young Tunisian who dreams of a better life and ekes out a lonely existence selling contraband oil on the black market. When his father dies, he is forced to care for his two younger sisters who have been left to their own devices in a house from which they will soon be evicted. As he wrestles with the sudden weight of responsibility and the injustices he faces, anger and indignation stir within Ali – that of a generation still fighting to be heard more than a decade after the revolution…
Harka

Early-pandemic, Jay and Celine head to a rental house to reconnect. While Celine films a documentary on their disintegrating relationship, a recently ‘cancelled’ Jay becomes increasingly paranoid about his portrayal, setting up hidden cameras to spy on Celine.
The Code

Two roommates’ lives are upended after finding out that their new Manhattan apartment harbors a dark secret.
The Scary of Sixty-First

Mia Sloan is a bright yet unmotivated 29-year-old waitress who suddenly finds herself in the unenviable position of having one day to raise thousands of dollars in back-due rent in order to stave off eviction. During this memorably hectic day, Mia journeys through her hometown of Tallahassee, encountering various figures from her life while attempting to earn the funds any way she can.
Hustle

Amidst the devastation of post-crisis Spain, mother and daughter bluff and grift to keep up the lifestyle they think they deserve, bonding over common tragedy and an impending eviction.
El Planeta

Los Angeles, 2006. Life is Easy 2.0 for James Pongo. He has a cushy job, a busy social life and an alluring love interest all through the click of a mouse. But when he wakes up after a night of reckless partying to discover that his computer is missing, James' hyper-connected reality takes a nosedive. Told entirely through the websites, programs, games and social networks, 0s & 1s uses James Pongo's nihilistic adventure to question our growing dependency on these alternate digital realities.
0s & 1s

A couple on the verge of a nervous break-up decide to split their home over the weekend and test the waters of independence.
Wobble Palace

After a nervous breakdown, a young office assistant flees to his parents' house in Arizona and hires an escort to take care of him.
The Hedonist
Action-comedy set in Japan.
Vintage Violence

A young man, reeling from a long-distance romance gone awry, spirals increasingly deeper into depression and desperation as he video chats with his close friends and gets involved with a New Age, Right-wing, domestic terrorist cell.
SkyDiver (Instructional Video #4: Preparation for Mission)

When Eugene’s ex-GF Katelyn lands in LA to disband their business, the two of them must negotiate between past tensions and future possibilities, in this raw bittersweet rom-com that walks the line between fiction and reality.