Director Profile
Dani Levy
Position: Director
Country: Germany
Dani Levy was born in Basel in 1957 and has lived in Berlin since 1980. He performed on stage in Basel (1977-79) and in Berlin (1980-83) before making his debut as a director with Shame on You (1986), for which he received the Best Film Award at the Vevey Comedy Festival. He was honored with additional awards for his 1988 film RobbyKallePaul (Audience Award at the 1989 Max-Ophuls Festival) and for I Was on Mars (Fipresci Award for Best Film in San Sebastian), which he finished in 1991. In 1994 he joined up with Stefan Arndt, Wolfgang Becker and Tom Tykwer to found the production company X Filme Creative Pool. Silent Night, which was X Filme's first project, ran in the International Competition at the Berlin Film Festival. In 1997, he directed the thriller The Giraffe, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and won both the Bavarian Film Award and the prize for Best Cinematography in 1999. In 2002 he shot the family drama I Am the Father. He received numerous awards for his turbulent comedy Go For Zucker! (SFJFF opening night film 2005), including the 2005 German Film Award in the Categories Best Screenplay, Best Director and Best Film. My Fuehrer: The Truly Truest Truth About Hitler is his latest film. He is the 2007 recipient of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival Freedom of Expression Award. For more information please visit http://www.x-filme.de
Dani will be in attendance in San Francisco screenings.
Films in the Festival
Giraffe, The
In this sexy, taut thriller by SFJFF Freedom of Expression Award winner Dani Levy, a mysterious death links two generations of families in Germany and America.
My Fuehrer: The Truly Truest Truth About Adolf Hitler
A depressed Adolf Hitler hires a Jewish acting teacher to reclaim his charisma in this wicked and controversial parody from Germany by Jewish director Dani Levy.