Artist Statement
Pola Rader works across film, photography, media art, and immersive formats.
Her practice extends from cinematic forms into spatial and performative environments, including XR and installation.
Her work explores how memory, violence, and cultural narratives shape identity and experience, with a particular focus on female perspectives.
Engaging with social and political realities, she examines marginalization, systemic violence, and lived experience.
Drawing on documentary material and real conditions, she transforms and reconfigures them into surreal visual worlds.
Biography
Pola Rader is a media artist and film director based in Germany, working across film, media art, and immersive formats.
Born in Russia, she studied at Murmansk Arctic State University, earned a BA in Film Studies from the Free University of Berlin, and holds an MFA in Film from the Hamburg University of Fine Arts (HFBK).
Her work explores memory, perception, identity, and social realities through documentary, experimental, and hybrid visual forms. Her films and artistic projects have been presented at international film festivals and exhibition contexts.
She lives and works in Kiel, Germany, and is the founder of NAVERNA Studio.
Education
2019 | University of the Fine Arts Hamburg HFBK, Master of Fine Arts, Film
2014 | Free University of Berlin, bachelor degree in film and theatre studies
2009 | Murmansk Arctic State University, teaching degree for English and French philology
Awards
2025 | Kurt Denzer Documentary Film Scholarship
2022 | CineStar-Award at 64th Nordic Film Days for the short film "And Died Together One Day", Lübeck, Germany
2022 | Gesa-Rautenberg film award 2022 for "Habitat", FilmFest Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany
2021 | Gesa-Rautenberg film award 2021 for "And Died Together One Day", FilmFest Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany
2021 | Audience award 2021 for "And Died Together One Day", FilmFest Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany
2019 | Shortlist, Felix Schoeller Photo Award “Best Work by an Emerging Photographer”, Germany
2019 | Shortlist, Boutographies, photo-competition, Montpellier, France
2016 | Nomination for film award „Serge Daney of diffusion”, Paris, France
2015 | Best short film Preis, international short film festival for social advertisement „Ladoshka“, Minsk, Belarus
Selected Screenings & Exhibitions
2026 | "Voices", Group Exhibition, CICA Museum, Gimpo-si, South Korea
2026 | Sydney Film Festival, Sydney, Australia
2026 | VIDEOFORMES International Hybrid and Digital Arts Festival, Clermont-Ferrand, France
2025 | Short Film Corner, Cannes Film Festival, France (Category: Industry Showcase / Networking Platform)
2024 | 47th Drama International Short Film Festival (DISFF), Greece
2024 | 25th Landshut Short Film Festival, Germany
2022 | 64th Nordic Film Days, Lübeck, Germany
2022 | "Länskonstmuseum Autumn Tour" curated by The Contemporary Art Museum Konstmuseet i Norr, Kiruna, Sweden / "Habitat"
2022 | Debut Performance of "Unter Druck" immersive theatre Project within Lübeck Museum Night, St. Catherine's Church, Lübeck
2022 | Artfair ARTe Konstanz, Germany, Juli 2022
2021 | Présence autochtone / First Peoples Festival, Montréal, Canada
2021 | FilmFest Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany
2021 | ILLUSTRATIO Lichtkunstfestival, Kiel, Germany
2021 | Athens digital Arts festival, TĀCTUS, Athens, Greece
2021 | HER Docs Film Festival, Warsaw, Poland
2021 | Hochkantfilmfest, media art open-air gallery, Bremen, Germany
2020 | solo exhibition, KirchenKAI Gallery, Kiel, Germany
2020 | Nordische Filmtage Lübeck, Germany
2020 | Regard Bleu Filmfestival, Völkerkunde Museum, Zürich, Switzerland
2019 | Lockvögel, Baby!, group exhibition, HFBK Gallery, Hamburg, Germany
2017 | Filmfest Schleswig-Holstein 2017, Kiel, Germany
2015 | Monsters of film, International short film festival, Stockholm, Sweden
2015 | International short film festival Detmold 2015, Detmold, Germany
2015 | Västerås film festival 2015, Västerås, Sweden
Selected Professional Development
2026 | Marché du Film, Festival de Cannes, France, Selected Project Presentation, "Would You Buy This?"
2026 | NewImages Festival, Paris, France, MOIN Film Fund Education Delegation
2025 | Venice Immersive, Biennale di Venezia, Italy, MOIN Film Fund Education Delegation
2025 | Doc4Kids Training Programme, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA)
2023 | Future North Talent Scholarship, Nordic Film Days Lübeck, Germany
Selected Grants & Residencies
2025 | EXIST Women Fellowship – Awarded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (Germany) in support of NAVERNA, a space for progressive and artistically bold animation for children.
2025 | Production funding for short film Ultraviolet Damages the Screen by MOIN Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
2024 | Production funding for short animation Ozero Miry by MOIN Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
2023 | Production funding for children’s short film Beromut by MOIN Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
2022 | Prototype development funding for immersive project "Terra Media" by MOIN Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
2021 | Concept development funding by MOIN Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
2021 | Idea funding by MOIN Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
Publications
https://mini-maven.com/iso-sun/
https://www.floatmagazine.us/portfolios/pola-rader-iso-sun
https://www.floatmagazine.us/portfolios/pola-rader
https://parabola.org/2019/08/13/icon-and-mirror-a-photo-project-by-pola-rader/
https://www.plough.com/en/topics/community/icon-and-mirror
http://www.squaremag.org/resources/PolaRader.pdf
http://ortaformat.org/icon-and-mirror-27