Larisa Sadilova was born in 1963 in Bryansk, Russia. She graduated from the acting department of the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in Moscow. Her first role in cinema was in Sergei Gerasimov’s film Lev Tolstoy (1985). She launched her directorial career with the black-and-white film Happy Birthday! (1998), which received several awards. Her second feature film With Love, Lilly (2003) won a Tiger Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). Four years later, Nothing Personal (2007) won the FIPRESCI Award at the Moscow International Film Festival. Once in Trubchevsk (2019) was screened in the Un Certain Regard section of the 72nd Cannes Film Festival.