Jakob Moritz Erwa (born July 17, 1981, in

Graz Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...

Steiermark Styria ( ; ; ; ) is an Austrian state in the southeast of the country. With an area of approximately , Styria is Austria's second largest state, after Lower Austria. It is bordered to the south by Slovenia, and clockwise, from the southwest, ...

) is an Austrian director, screenwriter, film producer.

Life

After receiving his high school diploma at technical institution of higher education for art and design in Graz in June 2000, Erwa worked for several film production companies in Austria. At the age of nineteen, he wrote his first screenplay ''One by One – Eine Teenietragödie''. 2001 he produced his first short movie ''Trübe Aussichten'' and started his studies at the

University of Television and Film Munich The University of Television and Film Munich (German: Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München, short: HFF Munich) is a publicly funded film school in Munich, Germany. The school was established in 1966 by decree of the Bavarian government. T ...

, which he completed in February 2007. In 2003, Erwa founded the film production company ''mojo:pictures'' with the actor Rachel Honegger in Munich. In 2007, he produced together with ''Novotny & Novotny Filmproduktion'' his critically acclaimed graduation movie ''Heile Welt''. The movie received the

Diagonale The Diagonale (Festival of Austrian Film) is a film festival that takes place every March in Graz, Austria. The festival was initially held under the auspices of the Austrian Film Commission in Salzburg from 1993 to 1995 but moved to Graz in 19 ...

award for the best Austrian feature film in 2006/07 and the ''German Independence Award'' at the

Oldenburg International Film Festival The Oldenburg International Film Festival, sometimes called the ''European Sundance'', has covered the international film scene in all aspects since 1994. It is held in Oldenburg (city), Oldenburg, Germany. History Films such as Park Chan-wook� ...

for the best German movie. Furthermore, the movie took part in many competitions at international film festivals. For

ORF ORF or Orf may refer to: * Norfolk International Airport, IATA airport code ORF * Observer Research Foundation, an Indian research institute * One Race Films, a film production company founded by Vin Diesel * Open reading frame, a portion of the g ...

, Erwa worked from 2007 until 2009 on '' tschuschen:power'', a teenager series about migrants in second and third generation in Vienna. With his second feature movie, ' Erwa was invited to the

Berlinale The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

in 2015, where the movie's premiere took place. His movie adaption ''

Center of My World ''Center of My World'' () is a 2016 coming-of-age romantic drama film directed by Jakob M. Erwa, based on the 1998 best-selling novel '' The Center of the World'' by Andreas Steinhöfel. Plot Seventeen-year-old Phil returns home from summer ca ...

'', which is based on the young-adult book ''

The Center of the World ''The Center of the World'' is a 2001 American drama film directed by Wayne Wang and shot on digital video. It stars Peter Sarsgaard as a dot-com millionaire who hires a drummer/stripper (Molly Parker) to stay with him in Las Vegas for three d ...

'' by

Andreas Steinhöfel Andreas Steinhöfel (; born 14 January 1962) is a German author for children and young adult books, and a translator. Biography Andreas Steinhöfel grew up with two brothers in the Middle Hesse small town Biedenkopf, and did his GCE Advanced ...

, is set to be released in November 2016 in Germany. Erwa lives in Berlin and is a member of ''BVR - Bundesverband Regie'' and of the ''Akademie des Österreichischen Films''.

Filmography

Music videos

* 2004: Shiver - Stehst du still (P: mojo:pictures , L: EMI Austria) * 2006: Farbe 5 - Traumfrau (P: mojo:pictures , L: GTM) * 2007: Jerx feat. Emkay1 - FICK DIE WELT (L: ToXroX/Universal Music) * 2009: Jerx - Pleased To Meet You (L: maintheme/Universal Music) * 2010: Jerx - Money (L: maintheme/ToXRoX/Universal Music)

Awards

''Homesick'': *2016: Best Picture - Eye On Films Competition, Kolobrzeg International Suspense Film Festival 2016 *2015: Special award of the jury for Esther Maria Pietsch for her portrayal in ''Homesick'' at the Baltic Debuts Film Festival 2015 *2015: Nomination: DFJW-Preis Dialogue en perspective,

*2015: Nomination: Made in Germany – Förderpreis Perspektive,

*2015: Nomination: Best feature film, Neuchâtel International Fantasy Film Festival ''Heile Welt'': *2007:

award – Best Austrian feature film 2006/07 *2007:

: ''German Independence Award'' – Best German movie 2007 *2007: 2 Nominierungen ''Best feature-length graduate film'' und ''Actor award (Simon Möstl)'' First Steps Award 2007 *2007: 2 nominations ''Best movie debutant'' Undine Award (''A. Schneider'', ''M. Sauseng'') *2008: Nomination ''Best Screenplay'' Studio Hamburg Nachwuchspreis 2008 ''Wie Schnee hinter Glas'': *2006: Bester österreichischer Kurzfilm 2006 (Cosi Fan Tutte Vienna Short Film Festival) *2005: Cine Styria Jugendfilmpreis des Landes Steiermark *2005: Starter Filmpreis der Landeshauptstadt München For his music videos, including those for Shiver and Jerx, Erwa has been awarded multiple times.

External links

*
''mojo:pictures''
Erwa's film production company {{DEFAULTSORT:Erwa, Jakob M. 1981 births Living people Austrian film directors