Christian Alvart

Christian Alvart was born in 1974 near Frankfurt, Germany. His strict Christian background frowned upon films and television and in his childhood he was rarely allowed to see a movie. He developed a fascination and love for the forbidden subject matter and quickly became an "expert" in his circle of friends, successfully hiding that he hadn't seen most of the films they were talking about. Instead, he read about films, their making, the novels or the source material they were based on. When he finally was able to get his hands on films he couldn't stop watching, often going to the cinema six times a week. In 1990 he started making small video and Super-8 films with his friends. The group became part of a network of hobby-filmmakers and geeks. Most of his peers were professionally working in lower positions on movies, creating their own projects in their free time. At the age of 19 Alvart became an editor and layout designer with the X-TRO Filmmagazin, soon working his way up to editor-in-chief and eventually even owning the special interest publication. In 1997, he decided to make his own films again and moved with his company Syrreal Entertainment to Berlin. To get a glance at the world of "professional filmmaking" he started as a runner, soon working his way up again to 1st AD on two features within the same year. In 1998, he wrote, produced and directed Curiosity & The Cat, his first 35mm feature film - a low budget thriller which cost only $30K. Many of his friends from the Frankfurt days were part of the project. The film was nominated for the Max-Ophüls-Award and the Prize of the Minister President of the State Saarland. Alvart then worked as a writer for several German features and TV shows. In 2005, he debuted Antibodies, his second work as a director. When it premiered at The Tribeca Film Festival he was named as one of "Five Directors To Watch" as well as the "German New Face of Cinema" at The AFI Festival. Antibodies was also invited to the Edinburgh Film Festival as well as many others, winning numerous awards.