Christoph is a bearded, two-meter Austrian, who grew up as the youngest boy of eight siblings and the one selected by his father to become a priest (to no avail). Christoph graduated from the Filmacademy in Vienna, where he was taught and tortured by Michael Haneke. With a Fulbright Scholarship, he was able to flee the country and complete his MFA at Columbia University.

His short films have been invited to over 400 film festivals and have won dozens of awards. At Columbia he sprayed a cardboard box silver and used two old camera lenses as eyes to shoot a robot short film. It premiered at the Toronto Film Festival where it won the TIFF Emerging Filmmaker Award. He’s now adapting the robot into a feature film and will present the project at the 75th Cannes International Film Festival as part of the Frontières co-production market.

Since 2009 Christoph runs the Shortynale Film Festival and divides his time between the United States and Austria.

AWARDS (SELECTION)

Max Ophüls Preis – Best Film
37^th Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis, Germany 2016

TIFF Emerging Filmmaker Award
38^th Toronto Film Festival, Canada 2013

Austrian Film Award – Nomination
Austrian Film Academy, Austria 2017

Special Jury Award
50^th Houston WorldFest, Texas 2017

Best Film
21^st New Jersey Film Festival, USA 2016

Best Film
28^th Columbia Film Festival, USA 2015

Austrian Film Award – Nomination
Austrian Film Academy, Austria 2015

Marion Carter Green Award
National Board of Review, USA 2015

Best Director
Revolution Me Film Festival, USA 2016

Hollywood Foreign Press Award
Hollywood Foreign Press, L.A., USA 2012

Best Experimental Film
16^th Tel Aviv Student Film Festival, Israel 2014

Huayi Bros New Media Award
15^th ISFVF Beijing, China 2016

Best Film
16^th Karlsruhe Independent Days, GER 2017

Best Fiction Film
15^th Belgrade Student Film Festival, 2017

FIPA d’Or – Grand Prize
20^th FIPA Festival Biarritz, FRA 2007