Prof. Stefan Schwietert

Professor of Documentary Directing & Dean of the Directing program

1Room R 1404Tel: +49 331 6202 230Send an E-Mail

Born in 1961, Stefan Schwietert is a documentary director with both German and Swiss citizenship. In his youth, he traveled across South and North America and worked as a sleeping car conductor and barkeeper. He was an intern in the music department of TV Globo in São Paulo and a visiting student at the California Art Institute in San Francisco. From 1984 to 1990, he studied at the German Film and Television Academy (DFFB) in Berlin.    

Today, Stefan Schwietert ranks among Switzerland's and Germany's most successful directors of cinema documentaries. His films have received numerous awards and nominations, including a Bavarian Film Award, a European Film Award nomination, and two nominations for a Swiss Film Award. His films have been brought to hundreds of thousands of viewers across the globe by European as well as North and South American distributors.   

Broadly speaking, Schwietert's films are about the human condition. They tell stories about music and musicians, the loss and renewal of traditions caused by upheavals such as war, political restraints, or technological progress (A Tickle in the Heart, El Acordeon del Diablo, Balkan Melodie). The films follow their protagonists as they search for their roots and develop their own identities. They explore the question to what extent our actions are shaped by our origins and environments and illustrate that, in many cases, bold and radical (artistic) individual achievements are a prerequisite for changing and renewing cultural expressions and traditions (Accordion Tribe, Heimatklänge, Imagine Waking Up Tomorrow and All Music Has Disappeared).    

In recent years, retrospectives of his films have been shown in Germany, Austria, Latin America, and the US. Alongside his films for the cinema, Schwietert also directs television documentaries and works for production companies as a dramaturg for documentary film projects directed by fellow filmmakers.

Since the late 1990s, Stefan Schwietert has been teaching and offering block courses at various film schools, including the German Film and Television Academy (DFFB) in Berlin and  the Zurich University of the Arts.

Stefan Schwietert is a member of AG DOK, the German Film Academy, the Swiss Film Academy, the Swiss Film Directors Association, and the Friends' Association of DFFB.  

Cinema Documentaries

  • IMAGINE WAKING UP TOMORROW AND ALL MUSIC HAS DISAPPEARED, 2015

Best Swiss Film, Visions du Reel 2015
Nomination Swiss Film Prize 2015
Chopins Nose, Docs Against Grativity 2015

  • BALKAN MELODIE, 2011

Filmfestival Solothurn
Publikumspreis Heimatfilmfestival Freistadt
Nominierung Schweizer Filmpreis

  • HEIMATKLÄNGE, 2007

Berlinale Forum
Schweizer Filmpreis
Nominierung zum europäischen Filmpreis
Berlinale Forum C.I.C.A.E. Award
Berlinale Forum Readers Award
Visions du Réel Publikumspreis
Best Documentary San Luis, Argentina
Best Music Film Athens International Filmfestival
Musikdokumentarfilmpreis Unerhört Filmfestival Hamburg

  • ACCORDION TRIBE, 2004

Locarno Cineaste du Present
Schweizer Filmpreis
Art-TV Prize "Best film of the Year"
Publikumspreis Würzburg

  • DAS ALPHORN, 2003

Filmfestival Solothurn
Best Documentary Trento

  • EL ACORDEON DEL DIABLO, 2000

Locarno Piazza Grande
Nominierung Schweizer Filmpreis

  • A TICKLE IN THE HEART, 1996

Berlinale Forum
Best Documentary Chicago Film Festival
Bayerischer Filmpreis
Arthur Brauner Filmpreis

TV Documentaries

  • 24 STUNDEN BERLIN

Segment mit Daniel Barenboim, RBB/arte 2009 

  • BIG BAND POESIE

59 min.,SRF/3sat 2007 

  • DIE SCHWARZE MADONNA

45 min., SRF 2004 

  • LIEBESLIEDER

60 min., SRF 2002 

  • VOYAGE ORIENTAL

60 min., SRF/3sat 2000 

  • IM WARTERAUM GOTTES

65 min., 3sat 1998 

  • DER SCHATTEN IST LANG

67 min., Kurzfilm/Spielfilm, ORF 1993

Short Films / Fiction

  • SPRUNG AUS DEN WOLKEN

79 min., Spielfilm, 1991 

  • TAPEZ 36-15 CODE GORBA

14 min., 1987 

  • DAS TOPOLINO PROJEKT

37 min., 1986