Oliver Schmitz is an award-winning South African director. He has, with his film Life Above All, been shortlisted for "Best Foreign Film" at the academy awards and received accolades from the likes of Roger Ebert. His 1980s gangster drama Mapantsula has become a classic and is taught in film studies in many universities.

Growing up in Cape Town, Schmitz comes from fine art and music background. With others, from 1981-1983 he ran a cult nightclub (Scratch), that successfully beat Apartheid segregation laws and nurtured a generation of creative and militant youth.

Schmitz has made five movies for cinema, four of which have screened in official selection in Cannes - one being the Parisian omnibus film Paris je t'aime (Place des fetes). Shepherds and butchers with Steve Coogan and Andrea Riseborough premiered at the Berlinale 2016, where it won an audience award and Best Directing at the South African Film and Television Awards.

He lives in Berlin with his wife and daughter and also has an active television career, directing. Credits include; the award-winning comedy series Türkisch für Anfänger and Doctor's Diary, winning respectively, Best Series, at the German Television Awards, the German Comedy Awards, and a prestigious Grimme Prize.

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Oliver Schmitz

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