Mitja Okorn
Born	(1981-01-26)26 January 1981 (age 44) Kranj,SR Slovenia,Yugoslavia
Occupations	Film director screenwriter
Years active	2005–present
Works	Letters to Santa(2011) Planet Single(2016) Life in a Year(2020)

Mitja Okorn (born 26 January 1981) is a Slovenian film director and screenwriter. Most known as director ofLetters to Santa,Planet Single and his Hollywood debutLife in a Year.

He was born on 26 January 1981 inKranj. He graduated at high school of economics and studied atSchool of Economics and Business inUniversity of Ljubljana, then he quit the college in the third year. He never studied atAcademy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television (AGRFT) in Ljubljana, the main Slovenian film school institution, as he accused them of stagnating for decades. He is also very critical to Slovenian culture and film industry being total amateurs for ignoring him and not investing any money in his film projects.^[1]

In 2000 he started his career with two short documentariesNot sponsored 1 andNot sponsored 2; and awarded for short filmBe Flexible atMotovun Film Festival in 2002. His career started to bloom in 2005 when he directed his first feature filmTu pa tam (Here and There) which premiered at his 24th birthday, a Slovenian film shown also at Sunderland Film Festival. This opened him doors to shoot numerous adds and music videos for Slovenian artists such asDan D,Omar Naber,Alya, Elvis Jackson, Select, C.R.A.S.H, Kocka and Jah Waggie.^[2]

In 2007 he was one of ten nominated for IYSEY award for most promising Young Film Entrepreneur, which is awarded byBritish Council. After that he spent two weeks inWales andLondon where he presented himself to expert jury, where he metDuncan Kenworthy who described him as a young director with full of energy and bright future. In fall he was invited byTVN, Polish commercial television to direct and co-write first season of Polish tv series39 i pół (2008–09), which was a huge success in Poland with excellent ratings. After that he directed numerous commercials in Poland.

In 2011 he directed his first international feature film, romantic comedyLetters to Santa (Listy do M.) distributed by ITI Cinema, huge success in Poland with box office over $12 million. It was the most watched movie in Poland that year with over 850,000 viewers and total of over 2 millions. With 130 days, it is the second longest screening film in Polish cinema history, only afterTitanic. Broadcasting rights were sold to various TV stations inPoland, theCzech Republic,Latvia andSlovenia.^[3]

In 2016 he directed his second Polish feature film, romantic comedyPlanet Single (Planeta Singli) distributed byKino Świat, was a commercial success back home and thanks to the roots of director, also in Slovenia. Number of tickets sold between first and second weekend of broadcasting in Poland increased for 156%, the most after 1989. Film was nominated for Golden Lion Award in the main category at 41st Film Festival inGdynia.^[4]

In 2017 he completed his Hollywood debutLife in a Year, an Americanromantic drama film, starringJaden Smith,Cara Delevingne andCuba Gooding Jr., which was produced byOverbrook Entertainment, co-owned byWill Smith and distributed byColumbia Pictures. It was released three years later due to some issues between production company and distributor. He became the first ever Slovenian director inHollywood and one of few Slovenians in the heart of film industry.^[5]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toMitja Okorn.

• Mitja Okorn atIMDb

• 1981 births
• Living people
• Slovenian film directors
• Film people from Kranj

• CS1 Slovenian-language sources (sl)
• CS1 Polish-language sources (pl)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles with hCards
• Commons category link from Wikidata