Stefan Ruzowitzky
Stefan Ruzowitzky ( born December 25, 1961 in Vienna) is an Austrian film director and screenwriter. In 2008 his feature film was The Counterfeiters won the Oscar for best foreign language film.
Life
Much of his childhood was spent Ruzowitzky in Dusseldorf, where his father worked as a mechanical engineer. After his family returned to Austria, he attended the Academic Gymnasium Spittelwiese in Linz, where he graduated as well. Ruzowitzky studied theater and history at the University of Vienna and has filmed several music videos, for example, 3 -o -Matic ( " Success" ), N'Sync ( " tearin 'up my heart" ) or Stefan Raab ("I 'm only doing folk music "). He is married since 1999 with Birgit Storm ( b. 1968 ); they have two children and live in Klosterneuburg.
In 1996 he returned with the feature film tempo to be - with the Max Ophüls Prize excellent - directing and screenwriting debut from. It was followed by The Siebtelbauern a critically acclaimed drama set in rural milieu of the Mühlviertel in the interwar period, which was honored with several international film awards. Ruzowitzky then led in German thrillers anatomy and anatomy 2 Director. Anatomy lured in Germany alone more than two million visitors to the cinema.
His first and to date only flop experienced Ruzowitzky with the international co-production The men of Her Majesty, who had little success in film criticism and at the box office. Have been criticized in the film, especially the script and the performances.
In 2007, Ruzowitzky at the 2007 Berlinale his new film The Counterfeiters ago. This concentration camp drama met benevolent echo of criticism. In the same year Ruzowitzky drama was at the Oscars in 2008 selected as the official Austrian contribution for the nomination for the best foreign language film. The nomination of 63 non-English productions by the Academy on 22 January 2008., The film was able to successfully set at the 80th Academy Awards on February 24, 2008 against the foreign competition. Ruzowitzky received the Oscar statuette from the hands of Penélope Cruz. In October 2008 he received in Agrigento ( Sicily) the international price Efebo d' Oro and was honored for The Counterfeiters.
Since October 2013 he has held the Presidency of the Academy of the Austrian film together with Ursula Strauss.