Lina Vain Illalla is a Sweden Finnish and non-binary writer-director, born and raised in southern Stockholm. They started their path as a comics artist and illustrator, discovering their love for collaborative work through a comics collective in Malmö.

Since 2015, they have made several short films and video works which have been screened at international film festivals. They have a bachelor in film composition from the art academy in Gothenburg where they directed, wrote, produced and edited (and much more) most of their films themselves.For Lina, film is a weapon against life. With a sweet tooth for the raw, dirty and confrontational, they are interested in characters who can’t handle - or refuse to handle - the cards life has dealt them. Through stories and art, Lina tries to make sense of life and the contradictions and sorrows it brings. They are driven by a hungry curiosity of the world around them combined with a grief of how society is structured.

Lina has an ambition with breaking the expected, both in terms of the film’s form and the characters within it. They want to embrace the intuitive and accidental part of filmmaking, where mistakes and spontaneity are welcomed guests. For them, filmmaking is just a way of living life, where exploration within the artistic process and the social aspects of filmmaking are just as important as the finished film. Even though they constantly hoard facts and knowledge, art for them is the freedom from logic and clear answers - a space for thinking and speaking loudly without being interrupted.

Parallel to Super16, they are working on their first feature film.