Dmitri Frolov was born in Leningrad in 1966. He graduated from The Institute of Film & Television in 1990.

He worked at LENFILM Studios and then for the STV film company as a cameraman, in which capacity he has worked with many independent filmmakers. He began to shoot his own films before the start of perestroika, in the early 1980s. One of his first films, The Battle of Borodino, caused a furore and did much to determine the development of the folkloric trend in cinema.