13-Year-Old Ukrainian Filmmaker Sets World Record as Youngest Director of a Short Film
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Alexey Chugaev earns three Atlas World Records after his debut crime short surpasses one million views, with his authorship confirmed through formal review by Atlas World Records.
By Atlas Editorial Team
22 March 2026 • Kyiv, Ukraine
A Young Director Emerges Amid Unlikely Circumstances
From a country where headlines too often tell of conflict, a quieter story emerges — not of destruction, but of creation. It comes from the mind of a thirteen-year-old boy who has chosen to tell stories through light, lens, and motion. His name is Alexey Chugaev, and his short film Agent 7–13: The Start marks a rare moment in cinema: the ascension of a child into the discipline of authorship.
At an age when most still consume stories, Alexey has learned to compose them. His camera does not tremble. His ideas are deliberate. The film, inspired by the classic Sean Connery–era Bond pictures, introduces a new kind of hero — a young agent at the beginning of his journey, uncertain but brave, imperfect but intelligent. Through this character, Alexey begins his own path as both storyteller and craftsman.
A Production Defined by Discipline and Collaboration
What might have seemed an impossible undertaking for someone his age — writing, casting, filming, and editing — was carried out with calm precision. A month and a half of writing. Two weeks of filming. Ten days of editing. Not chaos, but orchestration. His words are simple: “There were no difficulties. The team worked together as one.”
That team — Danya Ananyev, Solomiya Blahopoluchna, and Nazariy Ruslanovych — formed a circle of dedication around the project. Together, they built a small, functioning studio of ambition and joy. It was filmmaking not as an escape, but as an expression of life as it should be: collaborative, focused, and unbroken by fear.
Alexey speaks not of hardship, but of practice — of watching great directors, analyzing scenes, studying rhythm and framing. His influences — Quentin Tarantino, Guy Ritchie, Jackie Chan, Tim Burton — each left an imprint that he has reinterpreted in miniature form. In his hands, the widescreen 2.76:1 aspect ratio, once the province of Hollywood epics like Ben-Hur, becomes a vessel for youthful precision — proof that cinematic language belongs to anyone who dares to learn it.
A Viral Breakthrough and Historic Certification
When Agent 7–13: The Start was released online, it did more than complete a record attempt — it connected. The film has now been viewed over one million times on TikTok, where audiences across the world discovered its mix of suspense, style, and startling maturity.
For these achievements, Atlas World Records formally certifies:
Youngest Director of a Short Film
Youngest Director of a Crime Short Film
Youngest Director of a Film in the 2.76:1 Format
In Alexey’s work, we witness not tragedy or survival, but something simpler and more profound: normalcy reborn through art. Amid the noise of a divided world, one boy found a way to focus a lens — and, through it, created a fragment of stillness, of order, of imagination.
He calls it Agent 7–13: The Start. And it is, unmistakably, the start of something greater.
[Alexey would like to thank the following individuals for their help with his film: Oksana Viktorovna, Danya Ananyev, Solomiya Blahopoluchna, and Nazariy Ruslanovyc.]
Certified by Atlas World Records on 3 November 2025