Jakob M. Erwa

Life

After 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, 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 award for the best Austrian feature film in 2006/07 and the German Independence Award at the Oldenburg International Film Festival for the best German movie. Furthermore, the movie took part in many competitions at international film festivals.

For ORF, 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, Homesick Erwa was invited to the Berlinale in 2015, where the movie's premiere took place. His movie adaption Center of My World, which is based on the young-adult book The Center of the World by Andreas Steinhöfel, is set to be released in November 2016 in Germany.

Jakob M. Erwa lives in Berlin and is a member of BVR - Bundesverband Regie and of the Akademie des Österreichischen Films.

Music videos

Awards

Homesick:

Heile Welt:

Wie Schnee hinter Glas:

For his music videos, including those for Shiver and Jerx, Erwa has been awarded multiple times.