Latvian Director Viesturs Kairišs Banks His Third Oscar Bid With 'Ulya,' a Basketball Legend Biopic

Viesturs Kairišs is making a play for the Academy Awards table again. The Latvian director just dropped Ulya, his third Oscar contender, and this one's got some real momentum behind it. The film's a biopic centered on Uljana Semjonova, the trailblazer who became the first non-American woman inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. That's heavyweight subject matter, and Kairišs is treating it that way.

Kārlis Arnolds Avots carries the film in the lead role—a rising talent stepping into the shoes of a genuinely transformative athlete. The production's already showing legs in the Baltics, moving like an actual hit in that territory, which says something about both the storytelling and the cultural moment around women's sports.

Kairišs has been vocal about his creative DNA here, name-dropping Herzog and Bergman as reference points. That tells you he's swinging for something with real artistic weight, not just a straight sports movie. Ulya is opening in Tallinn and building from there, and with a director this driven and a subject this important, this one's worth watching the trajectory on.

Read the full story at The Hollywood Reporter → https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/oscars-2027-film-latvia-ulya-basketball-blockbuster-interview-1236745736/