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Stefan Jäger, born in 1970 in Uster, Switzerland, initially trained at the cantonal teacher training seminar in Lucerne (1986-91). Already during this time he realized several documentary and short films, which were shown at numerous festivals. In 1992, he began studying directing and screenwriting at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg. He graduated in 1997. In the same year he founded the production company handsUP! together with Markus Kaeppeli.
He made his feature film debut with the fantasy love story "Misguided Angel" (CH 1998), which was shown at the Max Ophüls Preis film festival, among others. Jäger's second feature film, "Birthday" (2000), which was developed exclusively through improvisation, also screened at the Ophüls Preis Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award and the Screenplay Award.
Together with Bibiana Beglau, who had starred in "Birthday", he wrote the play "57' 38'' Ewigkeit", which tells of an avalanche accident; he himself also directed the premiere at the Zurich Schauspielhaus in 2002. Also in 2002, the mountain drama "Im Namen der Gerechtigkeit" (CH/DE 2002, TV) premiered at the Solothurn Film Festival.
In addition, Jäger realized the documentary series "Cyrill trifft" (together with Peter Jäger) for Swiss television in 2002 and 2003, in which the title character, who has trisomy 21, conducts interviews with celebrities. The series also spawned a feature film.
From 2002, Jäger was a lecturer in directing at the Ludwigsburg Film Academy. In January 2007, his next film, the drama "Il pugno di Gesù" ("Boxing Jesus"), shot in Italian, premiered at the Solothurn Film Festival. In the same year, handsUP! Film was renamed tellfilm when actor Stefan Gubser joined its management.
Jäger's euthanasia drama "Hello Goodbye" (CH 2007) won the Interfilm Prize at the 2008 Max Ophüls Preis Film Festival and the Director's Prize at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Film Art Festival. His crime thriller "Hunkeler und der Fall Livius" (CH/DE 2009) won the award for Best Swiss Television Film.
From 2009 Jäger was also a lecturer in dramaturgy and screenwriting at the Zurich University of the Arts, as well as a lecturer in acting at the Stuttgart University of the Performing Arts. In 2011, at the invitation of the Swiss Embassy and the Goethe Institute, he taught at the Blue Nile Film Academy in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia); this collaboration was continued with the realization of the feature film "Horizon Beautiful": it is about a 12-year-old Ethiopian who tries to convince a Swiss soccer manager in Addis Ababa of his talent as a kicker - with dramatic consequences.
For Swiss television he realized the docu-series "SF bi de Lüt - Schloss Biberstein" (2010) and "SF bi de Lüt - Das kleine Paradies" (2011). His next cinema project was the found-footage horror film "11:23 - 09:59 (Projekt Angst)" (CH 2014), followed by "Der grosse Sommer" (CH/JP 2015): the comedy about a grumpy ex-wrestler who embarks on a trip to Japan with the Japanese son of his deceased landlady advanced to become the most successful German-Swiss cinema film of 2016. When the main actor Mathias Gnädinger died shortly after filming was completed, Jäger realized the documentary "Mathias Gnädinger - The Love of His Life" (CH 2016).
As a screenwriter, Jäger was involved in Xavier Koller's "Schellen-Ursli" (CH 2015), among others; as a co-producer, he launched Julia C. Kaiser's award-winning relationship drama "Die Hannas" (DE 2016) and the coming-of-age horror film "Blue My Mind" (CH 2017), the multi-award-winning directorial debut of actress Lisa Brühlmann.
In the TV documentary "Ursus & Nadeschkin - Aufhören wäre einfach" (CH 2020), Jäger portrayed the popular Swiss cabaret duo. In the summer of 2020, he shot the prominently cast historical drama "Monte Verità - Der Rausch der Freiheit," which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival in 2021 and was released in German cinemas in the winter of 2021.
In addition to his film work, Stefan Jäger has been head of the screenplay department at the Zurich University of the Arts since 2018.