Oliver Schmitz

Oliver Schmitz ( * 1960 in Cape Town, South Africa) is a South African film director and screenwriter German descent. He was known primarily for his films Mapantsula, Hijack Stories and Life, Above and through his contributions to the German series Doctor's Diary and Turkish for beginners. Besides, he is sporadically active as an editor in the film.

Life and career

Oliver Schmitz was born as the son of German immigrants in the South African port city of Cape Town, where he grew up and attended school. After his high school graduation in Cape Town Schmitz was from 1978 to 1982 from the Michaelis School of Fine Art, which is affiliated with the University of Cape Town. In parallel, he was from 1980 to 1982 co-manager and DJ of Cape Town nightclub Scratch, which was after three years closed by the police because the owner refused to adhere to the segregation laws of apartheid and always "mixed audience" of the left the club. In 1981, he had in Loader Street Galery in Cape Town an art exhibition called Art- Pop Militants, which he led, among other things, along with Mario Pissarra. Finally, from 1983 to 1984, he was trained as an editor at Momentum film in the South African city of Johannesburg and then moved to Germany, where he was engaged from 1985 for the West German Radio (WDR) as an editor and this activity practiced there until 1986, before he settled back in his native country. There he was finally hired in 1987 as director and editor in the anti -apartheid documentary initiative Afravision, for which he worked up to and including 1994. During this time, He was responsible for the production of Mapantsula (1987 /88), an award-winning film in which Schmitz acted both as a writer and as a director. 1988 was followed by a documentary called The People's Poet, in which Schmitz has directed.

Even before this time, the director and screenwriter was active and led, among other things, in the The Twilight Zone Director documentation. Other productions for Afravision were in the following years Fruits of Defiance (1989 /90) and Hlanganani (1990). After that he acted in the years 1990 to 1992 Schlemmer Film GmbH in Cologne as a screenwriter for the movie soft targets and was then hired in 1993 as a screenwriter in the UK for Channel 4. He wrote or co - writer on the screenplay for the television series The Line and was also in the comedy series Shacking up as a screenwriter (including the pilot ) is active. Then he came in the same year for the South African Broadcasting Corporation ( SABC ), for which he acted as a director in the pilot Dark City and the documentary video revolution. In the following years, Schmitz worked closely with SABC and acted there as in the past times as a director, sometimes as a screenwriter and sometimes in both roles. He was active until 1996 in three other significant SABC productions. With film, Nelson Mandela Inaugutation in 1994, in which he has directed, they worked in cooperation with the former employer of Schmitz, the production company Afravision.

1995 Schmitz was engaged at multi-piece Rhythm and Rights, both as a writer and as a director. In 1996, was followed by The Godfather of Soweto, the former student of the University of Cape Town, wrote the screenplay for the pilot. 1997 Schmitz worked with ARTE and produced for the German - French cooperation television station as a director documentation Jo'burg Stories, which was awarded in the same year the Prix du Documentaire at the Vues d'Afrique organized film festivals in Montreal. In a South African- Canadian co Schmitz appeared in 1998 as director of In Search for Common Ground, a documentary series with. In 1999 he was involved in the same two movies, including the Pathé documentary film Boesman & Lena - The Making Of, based on the eponymous play by South African Athol Fugard from the 1960s. Having worked both in 2000 as director, screenwriter and editor at the multi award winning film Hijack Stories, he moved once more to Germany, where he was active mainly for Pro 7 and RTL initially. He has directed such films as The best piece (2002), What you always wanted to say about Singles ( 2003), Princess Bueller's Day (2004) and Suddenly famous ( 2004). He was also in 2003 in the film Paris, je t'aime as a director and screenwriter active and worked here at the twelfth episode ( Place des fêtes ), dedicated to the 19th arrondissement of Paris.

Finally, in 2005 Schmitz went into the production of Turkish for Beginners, where in 24 of the 52 episodes he has directed in the further course. And he had even before Edzard Onneken and Christian Ditter, the two other directors of the series, the actual principal director of the award-winning series. Also Schmitz was doing some of the coveted awards in film and television for the series, which was even nominated for an Emmy, among other things. After he even in the film My Father, who led the General Director in 2005, he came in 2006, parallel to his time at Turkish for Beginners as a director to the team of Doctor's Diary. With the series he celebrated almost as great a success as with Turkish for beginners, although he himself has directed only four episodes of the series. Prices, Schmitz reached, among others, the series:. German Television Prize 2008 German Comedy Award in 2008 and Adolf Grimme Award 2009 He also came in 2006, also in two or three episodes of arms millionaires as a director to use and was 2007, the director of the film meat. After working up to this point almost continuously for Turkish for Beginners, Schmitz was in 2008 as a director of The Trickster in use. As of 2009, eventually followed by two sequels of My Father, the General, who is also well known as Alone among daughters. He was, in 2009 as director for single use among school students and finally in 2010 alone among mothers ( Premiere: January 25, 2011). In between, he led from 2009 to 2010 the director in the film Life, Above ( in the original: Life, Above All (aka Chanda 's Secrets ) ). For the latter film, he received the Prix François Chalais at the International Film Festival of Cannes 2010 months later came Beloved life as an official South African contribution to the shortlist for the Oscar in the category Category:. Best Foreign Language Film, but 2011 could not be nominated among the five place posts.

Currently Schmitz, who also speaks fluent German in addition to his native English, but also basic knowledge of Afrikaans and Zulu has mainly lived in Berlin. Furthermore, Schmitz has a greater rotational abroad experience that he and worked for filming in Algeria, Germany, France, Finland, Great Britain, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Western Sahara, etc..

Nominations and awards

Nominations

• International Emmy Award 2009 in the category: Best Comedy Series

Awards

• AA VITA Film Award 1988 in the Category: Best Director
• AA VITA Film Award 1988 in the category: Best Screenplay
• Interchurch film Prize 1988 (? )
• One Future Prize at the Munich Film Festival 1989 in Category: Best Director
• Human Rights Medal in 1990
• South African Film and Television Award 2006 in the category: Best South African film of the decade

• Prix ​​du Documentaire at the Vues d'Afrique organized film festivals in Montreal in 1997

• Bronze Tanit at the International Film Festival of Carthage 2002
• Menzione Speziale at the Festival Cinema Africano 2002

• German Television Award 2006 in the category: Best series
• Golden Nymph at the Festival de Télévision de Monte- Carlo 2006 in the category: Outstanding European Comedy TV Series
• Prix ​​Italia 2006 in the category: Best TV Drama Series or Serial
• Cinéma Tous ecrans 2006 in the category: best international series (along with Edzard Onneken )
• Adolf Grimme Award 2007 in the category: Entertainment (along with Josefine Preuss as an actress, Edzard Onneken also involved as a director and Bora Dagtekin as head writer )
• Rockie Award at the Banff World Television Festival 2008 in the category: Best Telenovela and TV series

• German Television Award 2008 in the category: Best series
• German Comedy Award 2008 in the category Best Comedy Series
• Adolf Grimme Award 2009 in the category: Entertainment (along with Diana Amft as an actress, Steffi Ackermann as a producer and Bora Dagtekin as head writer )

• Prix ​​François Chalais at the International Film Festival of Cannes 2010