Sam Akina(I)

Sam graduated from Seattle Central College in 2003 with an AAS in Film and Video Communications. The following year, while bartending at Lake Wilderness Golf Course, he wrote the script "Bullets, Blood & a Fistful of Ca$h" for Thom Doty who was a regular customer at the bar. He raised $25,000 to fund the initial production of the film, with an additional $25,000 raised for post production. "Bullets, Blood & a Fistful of Ca$h" was sold at the Marche du Cannes by Shoreline Entertainment under the revised title "Ca$h". During the festival, Akina met Slovenian director Mitja Okorn and the two began working together on several projects. In 2010, Akina wrote Listy do M. (Letters to Santa) for Okorn and Polish network TVN, based on a preexisting screenplay by Marcin Baczynski and Karolina Szablewska. Listy do M. was released theatrically in 2011 and was the highest grossing film in Poland of the previous twenty years. Akina, along with his creative partner Jules Jones, formed the production company Attackships On Fire and began producing commercials for brands such as Dell Technologies. In the meantime, he continued to collaborate with Okorn. In 2015, Akina and Jones co-wrote Planeta Singli (Planet Single) for Okorn and Gigant Films. It was released theatrically in 2016 and was the 2nd highest grossing film of that year. Following the success of Planet Single, Akina and Jones entered into an agreement with Gigant Films to co-write the sequels which would shoot back to back in 2018. Following a trip to Poland in summer 2017, Akina was offered the position of director on Planet Single 2, and later agreed to co-direct Planet Single 3 with producer Michal Chacinski. Both films were released within 3 months of each other. Planet Single 2 was the 3rd highest grossing film in Poland of 2018 - beating out Avengers: Infinity War. Planet Single 3 is Poland's 6th highest grossing film of 2019, behind Avengers: End Game. Akina co-wrote and directed Mayday in 2019. Mayday released theatrically on January 10th, 2020. It was the 3rd highest grossing film in Poland in 2020.