Amanda Kernell
Amanda Kernell (born 1986) is a Swedish-Sami filmmaker whose work draws directly on her Sami heritage. Born in Umeå to a Swedish mother and a Sami father, she grew up between the two cultures and became interested in acting and directing during her early teens before training at the National Film School of Denmark in Copenhagen, where she graduated in 2013. Her short Northern Great Mountain premiered at Sundance in 2015 and grew into her feature debut Sami Blood (2016) — partly inspired by her own grandmother — a film about a young Sami girl confronting prejudice at a nomadic boarding school in 1930s Sweden, which premiered at Venice and won wide acclaim. Alongside her filmmaking, she teaches directing in Copenhagen.