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Oliver Rihs, born in 1971 in Männedorf near Zurich, initially trained as a graphic designer and worked from 1992 to 1995 as a freelance graphic designer in the field of advertising and culture and, on the side, as an assistant on commercial film productions. Rihs then changed jobs and worked temporarily as a social worker from 1996 until he started to create his own videos. He then worked as an assistant director and production manager for various productions and also created his own documentary pieces for the program "Quer" on Swiss television. In 1998 he realized the 27-minute short film "Lilien" ("Lilia"), which was awarded Best Short Film in Locarno. His first feature film, "Brombeerchen" ("Blackberry", CH), was shot in 2001 with Mina Tander, Robert Stadlober, as well as Birol Ünel, who died much too early in 2020, in the leading roles and was nominated for the Max Ophüls Prize in 2002. In 2003, the film opened in German theaters.
In the episodic film "Schwarze Schafe" ("Black Sheep", 2005), which features Robert Stadlober, Tom Schilling, Jule Böwe and Bruno Cathomas, among others, Rihs, who has lived in Berlin since 1999, reflected on his view of the German capital. "Schwarze Schafe," which achieved cult status in Berlin, won several awards, including the Förderpreis Deutscher Film at the 2006 International Hof Film Festival, as well as the Studio Babelsberg Production Prize in 2007. Also in 2007, it was nominated for the Swiss Film Award in the categories Best Feature Film and Best Screenplay.
In order to produce this film, Rhis had founded Oliwood Productions in Zurich in 2005. Three years later, together with René Römert, he founded Port au Prince Film & Kultur Produktion GmbH, based in Berlin. Together, the two companies co-produced the short film "Yuri Lennon's Landing on Alpha 46" by Swiss director Anthony Vouardoux, which was shot in English and won numerous international awards, as well as in 2010 - directed and scripted by Rihs - the comedy "Dating Lancelot," about the eponymous title character who searches for the woman of his life on the Internet with the help of his roommate.
The following year, Rihs' short film "Hasenhimmel" ("Bunny Heaven") was screened at the Hof Film Festival, among other festivals. The art film, with both fairy-tale and pornographic elements, deals with the question of what comes after death.
Rihs had great success in his home country in 2013 with the military comedy "Achtung, fertig, WK!" ("Ready, Steady, Ommm!", CH), which was produced by the Swiss production company Zodiac Pictures International. In 2012 and 2013, Oliver Rihs also appeared in front of the camera, in each case taking on small supporting roles first in Mathieu Seiler's horror film "True Love Ways," then in Seiler's relationship drama "Der Ausflug" ("The Outing", DE CH).
His next directorial and screenplay work was then produced again in 2016 by Port au Prince Film & Kultur Produktion GmbH, which Rihs co-founded: in the grotesque social satire "Affenkönig" ("Monkey King", DE CH, 2016), bon vivant Wolfi wants to celebrate his 45th birthday on his French country estate in a lavish way with three old friends, whom he has not seen since his youth, however.
Then in 2017, Felix Randau's adventure film "Der Mann aus dem Eis" ("Iceman", DE AT IT LU) starring Jürgen Vogel premiered at the Locarno Film Festival. Oliver Rihs served as executive producer for the story inspired by the discovery of "Ötzi" in the South Tyrolean Alps. Rihs then directed "Bis wir tot sind oder frei" ("Caged Birds", CH DE). Set in the Swiss judicial milieu, the drama about a young female lawyer who takes on the backward Swiss prison system in the 1980s premiered in 2020 at the Filmfest Hamburg but, due to the pandemic, was not released in German cinemas until spring 2022. Before that, in October 2021, the six-part streaming thriller series "Blackout" was released, three episodes of which were directed by Oliver Rihs.