About

Self 3dFoto: Stefan Jenni

I was born in 1981 in the countryside in South Germany. There wasn't much going on in the area - I had to get creative by myself. My passion for film and cinema was awakened early, at the age of 14 I started writing scripts and making my own little films. With 16 I did an internship at the Bavaria Film Studios München. Although I loved making films, I turned towards psychology after I passed my civil service in a psychiatry. After this imprinting experience, I studied literature (2 semesters), philosophy (minor) and psychology (major) in Stuttgart (Germany), Fribourg & Bern (Switzerland) and Bergen (Norway) between 2002 and 2008. After finishing my master degree in psychology, I did my Ph.D. in the field of nonverbal communication. In addition, I completed a training in psychotherapy and worked for a few years in psychosomatic hospitals and practices. But over time I missed creative work and telling own stories more and more.

This brought me back to my passion for movies in 2016. From then on I made step by step a transition to filmmaking and directing. I collected experience as 1. AD, unit Manager, set Manager, and as script supervisor on various film projects (short films, medium-length films, features and series). Among them are PROLL (award for best german short film 2021), NAKAM (Oscars shortlist 2023, category short film), the mini serie UP, UP (broadcasted by ARD 2021), and JESUS EGON CHRISTUS (Berlinale 2021, perspective german cinema).

Moreover I restarted to create own short films and developed gradually my own signature as a director. Among my previous works, STYX was nominated for the Camgaroo Award 2018 in Munich, IN THE GLASSHOUSE was selected among others for Berlin Lift-Off Film Festival 2021 and Cinergo International Film Festival in Athens; SEDUCED was semifinalist at the Capitol Filmmakers Festival Berlin 2020 as well as selected for the Ratma International Film Festvial 2020 (UK). My latest work MALIKA (2021) was shown 2022 at the Berlin Lift-Off Film Festival and at the Capitol Filmmakers Festival Berlin.

In 2022, I founded Refugium Film in Berlin with the aim of producing larger fictional projects little by little.