Laura Hypponen is a London based, award-winning Finnish/Russian writer-director with over ten years professional experience in the UK and European film industries. Her debut feature film Live East Die Young (2012) was nominated Best UK Picture at Raindance (London) and Golden Hitchcock at Dinard (France). The film was represented internationally by Paris-based Reel Suspects and is distributed globally by iTunes. Her ten-part short film series Ten Faces of Anna (2014) won Best Actor Award at world's leading fashion film festival, ASVOF at Centre Pompidou, Paris, premiered at the Arts Council England funded Stanley Picker Gallery in London, and screens in the Official Selection of the BAFTA-qualifying Aesthetica Film Festival in York (UK) next. She is currently developing a feature length crime thriller in a MEDIA-funded genre script development workshop at Italy's prestigious Scuola Holden with a scholarship from Skillset. In addition to narrative films, Laura has directed fashion films & music videos, which have screened at festivals and fashion events internationally, and featured in online press including Vogue Italia & Nylon Magazine. Laura studied filmmaking at Denmark's European Film College and subsequently completed a Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Birmingham & Masters in Management, Specialising in Film Business, with Distinction, at Cass Business School in London, UK.