We survey a new approach to the duality-invariant systems of nonlinear electrodynamics, based on introducing auxiliary bi-spinor fields. In this approach, the entire information about the given self-dual system is encoded in the U(1) invariant interaction of the auxiliary fields, while the standard self-dual Lagrangians appear on shell as a result of eliminating auxiliary fields by their equations of motion. Starting from the simplest U(1) duality, we show how this approach can be generalized to the U(N) duality (with N independent Maxwell field strengths), as well as to self-dual systems of N = 1 supersymmetric electrodynamics. Also, it works perfectly for self-dual systems with higher derivatives in the action.