Nyamgavaa Ichinkhorloo is a film producer, director, and screenwriter known for Ferocious Saint Lord of the Gobi and Five Fingers of One Hand. He was born in Khuvsgul province, Mongolia. He began his career in the theater in Mongolia as a teenager, received his degree from the Russian Academy of Theater Arts, and was the artistic director of the Youth and Children's Theatre in Ulaanbaatar from 1985-2006. He began making films in Mongolia in 1982 with Five Fingers of One Hand based on Chadraabal Lodoidamba's novel.

In the 1980s and 1990s, his work was featured in several international film festivals. He directed The Best Treasure (1989) and After Telling Story (1987). He directed and produced The Running Antelope (1993), Slaughter (1995), and the controversial film Boi (1994), which gained attention for its criticism of the Russian government. Later in the decade, My Native Land (1998) and Ferocious Saint Lord of Gobi (1998) both won the Goo Maral, Mongolia's top film prize. Ferocious Saint Lord of Gobi also has the distinction of being the first Mongolian Film screened in the United States--at the Seattle International Film Festival and the Mongolia Now: Independent Voices film festival at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Nyamgavaa produced By the Will of Chingis Khan (2009) with his children Bilegt Nyamgavaa (Vladimir Davidovich Ivanov) and Sarnai Nyamgavaa Tessitore. It was the first appearance of Nyamgavaa's work at the Cannes film festival. It was also Mongolia's official submission for Best Foreign Language Film for the Academy Awards. Also in 2007, he was a producer on the Japanese-Mongolian co-production Genghis Khan: To the Ends of the Earth and Sea.

Nyamgavaa won the Mongolian Academy Award for best short film for 19 in 2012. Most recently, he directed Unlimited (2014), about a Mongolian journalist whose investigations lead to his imprisonment by the government. He is currently working with Damdin Jamiyan and Sean Chichelli on the script for Blue Horse, which he plans to direct.

Nyamgavaa moved to the United States in 2009. He lives near Chicago with his wife, the actress Dolgor Nanzad.

Genghis Khan: To the Ends of the Earth and Sea

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I. Nyamgavaa

Director

Producer