Jānis Ābele

Jānis Ābele is the kind of director international producers look for: a filmmaker with the intellectual... depth of a philosopher and the audience instincts of a storyteller who knows how to hold a room.

His feature Jelgava '94 made history as the first Latvian fiction feature to land on Netflix, and it earned its place there, winning four film awards including Best Director. His debut short Six Feet Above took the Grand Prix at France's prestigious "Tous Courts", one of Europe's most competitive short film platforms. His latest documentary The Last Will (2025) premiered at international festival competitions in autumn 2025, continuing a track record of work that travels.

Ābele moves between fiction and documentary without losing his signature precision — a three-time award winner and Netflix-credited director whose films have screened across European festival circuits. Read More