BIOGRAPHY
Jonatan Schwenk, born in 1987 in Germany, is a director, author, animator, producer, and sound designer. His animated short films have gained international recognition at major festivals. His graduation film ZOON (2022) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was subsequently screened at more than 150 international film festivals, including AFI FEST, Telluride, Palm Springs ShortFest, Ottawa, and Animafest Zagreb. The film received numerous awards, including in Ottawa, Hiroshima, Stuttgart (Lotte Reiniger Promotion Award 2023), and others. Schwenk’s earlier film SOG (2017) won around 40 awards and special mentions, most notably the Cristal for a Graduation Film at Annecy. It was Oscar-qualifying and shown at prestigious festivals such as SXSW, Palm Springs ShortFest, Ottawa, Zagreb, and Flickerfest. As an animator and sound designer, Schwenk contributed to films selected for the Berlinale competition twice (ECHO, 2013 and THE OLD MAN AND THE BIRD, 2015). The short COPS & ROBBERS (dir. Florian Maubach), featuring his sound design, won the German Short Film Award in 2018. His sound design for RULES OF PLAY (dir. Merlin Flügel) was part of the award-winning film in Annecy (2019). Schwenk graduated from the Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach and was a guest student at Kunsthochschule Kassel. He occasionally teaches or gives workshops, for example at Bauhaus University Weimar and the School of Arts of the University of Nova Gorica (Slovenia). He was selected for Berlinale Talents in 2020 and participated in the International Residency for Animated Films at NEF, Fontevraud (France) in 2022. In 2023/24, he joined the European Animation Development Lab Animation Sans Frontières, where he developed the concept for his new short film ANT (working title). The pitch received four awards at the CEE Animation Forum, including the Ciclic Residency Award.
CONTACT
email jonatan.schwenk@gmail.com
Instagram: jonatanschwenk
Vimeo: vimeo.com/jonatanschwenk
FILMOGRAPHY
as director, producer and animator
-SISYPHOS BLUES (animated short, 2009, 04:49 min)
-MAISON SONORE (animated short, 2011, 04:44 min)
-NEUNUNDACHTZIG (animated short, 2012, 02:34 min)
-THE FISH IN THE TRAIN (animation, 2012, 01:00 min)
-SOG (animated short, 2017, 10:14 min)
-ZOON (animated short, 2022, 04:25 min)
as animator
-THE OLD MAN AND THE BIRD (short film by Dennis Stein-Schomburg, 2015)
-RADIX (animated short film by Anne Breymann, 2025)
as sound designer
-HOW TO DISAPPEAR (animated short by Merlin Flügel, 2011)
-ECHO (animated short by Merlin Flügel, 2013)
-A PLACE TO FIGHT (documentary by Matthias Lawetzky, 2015)
-RÄUBER UND GENDARM (animated short by Florian Maubach, 2017)
-SÄEN (animated short by Maryna Miliushchanka, 2018)
-RULES OF PLAY (animated short by Merlin Flügel, 2018)
-SPROUT (animated short by Florian Maubach, 2024)
JURY SERVICE
– Kasseler Dokfest, Goldener Herkules (Germany, 2018)
– Filmschoolfest Munich, Wolfgang-Längsfeld-Preis (Germany, 2018)
– GoShort, European Competition (Netherlands, 2019)
– Shortcutz (Germany, 2019)
– Stuttgart Trickfilm Intl Animated Film Festival, Student Competition (Germany, 2024)x
– Animateka 2024, International Grand Jury (Slovenia 2024)
– Stuttgart Trickfilm Intl Animated Film Festival, Preselection for Trickstar Nature Award (Germany, 2025)
SCREENINGS
(excerpt) SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL (USA) / SXSW (United States) / TELLLURIDE (USA) / AFI FEST (USA) / PREMIERS PLANS (France) / REGARD (Canada) / GLAS (USA) / ANIMAFEST ZAGREB (Croatia) / OTTAWA (Canada) / ANIMATEKA (Slovenia) / PALM SPRINGS SHORTFEST (USA) / FLICKERFEST (Australia) / PICTOPLASMA (Germany) / LIAF (UK) / ANIMA BRUSSELS (Belgium) / RIVERRUN (USA) / ITFS STUTTGART (Germany) / DOC LEIPZIG (Germany) / HIROSHIMA ANIMATION SEASON (Japan)
SKILLS
MOVING AND STATIC IMAGES
– 2D-animation: variety of techniques like stopmotion and hand-drawn animation (TVPaint) up to 2D and 3D Animation)
– VFX, compositing, tracking
– sketches, storyboards, previsualization, visual concepts
– lighting miniatures (stopmotion sets)
SOUND
– Sound-Editing (ProTools and Nuendo)
– Sound design
MASTERCLASSES / WORKSHOPS / TEACHING
– Stop-motion workshop “lost in paper miniature worlds” at Animage – Intl Animation Festival of Pernambuco (Brazil 2018)
– Director’s Showcase at Animage – Intl Animation Festival of Pernambuco (Brazil 2018)
– Lecture “Introduction to Sound for Animated Films” at Kunsthochschule Kassel (Germany, 2021)
– Lehrauftrag “Setbau- und Licht für Stopmotion Animation”, Bauhaus Universität Weimar (Germany 2021-2022)
– Lecture “Introduction to Sound for Animated Films” at Kunsthochschule Kassel (Germany, 2023)
– Stop-motion animation workshop at Sichuan Fine Arts Institute Chongqing (China 2024)
– Talk and panel discussion at A4 Art Museum Chengdu (China, 2024)
– Talk/Masterclass at Trickfilm Festival Düsseldorf 2024 (Germany, 2024)
– Guest lecture and workshop at Hochschule Wismar, University of Applied Sciences, Technology, Business and Design, Faculty of Architecture and Design (Germany 2024)
– Stop-motion workshop “Evoking Emotion with Lighting and Texture” at the University of Nova Gorica – School of Arts (Slovenia 2024)
– Masterclass at Animateka (Slovenia 2024)
– Talk/Masterclass at Hamburg Animation Club (Germany 2025)