Born in 1998 in Nizhny Tagil. In 2017 he began studying at the Russian State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK), but dropped out in 2018. He then shot his first feature-length documentary film Cherdak-Underground on VHS, telling the story of the Russian underground of the 1980s and 1990s. Returning regularly to the Urals, Vadim created Summer (2020), Winter (2021), and the documentary trilogy Narodnaya. Summer received a special jury mention at Sheffield Doc/Fest 2021, while his earlier work Orpheus (2019) was presented in the competition at FIDMarseille then the film was shown At RIDM (Montreal), Mar Del Plata international film festival and won Best Film at Black Canvas (Mexico City).
In October 2021 the trilogy Narodanya (Narodnaya, After Narodnaya, Comet) premiered at Heart Beat Section at the 19th edition of Doclisboa as well as Winter which was shown in the International competition there.
In March 2022 retrospective of Vadim's films took place at FICUNAM (Mexico City) with Vadim Kostrov presenting 7 titles in person(Orpheus, Summer, Winter, Loft-Underground, Narodnaya, After Narodnaya, Comet) resulting in18 screenings, and 3 films (Orpheus, Summer, Winter) were presented online on MUBI.
After Returning from Mexico City to Istanbul, Vadim finished his documentary feature film Sudden Istanbul. His new movie Fall premiered at FIDMarseille in July 2022.
He lives in Paris now.
