Ellen Ugelstad is a Norwegian filmmaker and founder of the Oslo-based production company Twentyone Pictures. She holds a BFA from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and studied philosophy and anthropology at the University of Oslo before moving to California. Ugelstad is dedicated to pioneering artistic innovation, exploring new forms and challenging traditional production structures.
Her work moves between documentary and fiction, allowing form and method to emerge from the material itself. Across her films, she explores mental health, power structures, and the shifting boundaries between reality and perception.
Her work also extends beyond the cinema space, with projects that engage audiences through exhibitions and public contexts, often creating space for dialogue.
Her feature documentary Indian Summer, portraying her younger brother’s experience with schizophrenia, was nominated for the International Young Talent Award at DOK Leipzig and the Nordic Dox Award at CPH:DOX, as well as two Norwegian Emmy Awards. Ugelstad's piece The Meetingroom received Best Screenplay at the Norwegian Short Film Festival in 2017. The Green Valley and The Wonders Beneath the Sea both won the Golden Chair Award at the Norwegian Short Film Festival qualifying them for Academy Award consideration. Her film essay Making Sense Together screened at the National Museum of Norway and at festivals across the country.

In her most recent endeavors, Ugelstad completed The Recovery Channel with the international premiere at CPH:DOX 2024, and unveiled two short films, Echo, Bully, and Rhythm and Next of Kin, released in fall 2024. Over the past fifteen years, Ugelstad has developed a body of work centered on mental health and lived experience, consistently giving voice to marginalized perspectives. This work was recognized with The Freedom of Speech Award in August 2024.
Ugelstad is currently developing her next feature film, Acts of Kindness, which has received production funding from the Norwegian Film Institute. The project marks a shift in tone—towards a character-driven drama-comedy exploring the complexities and contradictions of doing good.