Jack Rath

Jack Rath is an Australian-Swiss director and writer based in Berlin. After studying Media Arts at RMIT Melbourne, he began his career in the Australian film industry — where he received an AFI Award nomination for Best Editing for the feature film HURT — before relocating to Berlin in 2000. His short film OLLI (2006), a 35mm co-production with the Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen Konrad Wolf (HFF), screened at over forty international festivals, won Best Foreign Film at FIC Móstoles (Madrid) and received the FBW's Besonders Wertvoll certificate. His debut feature, the documentary BETWEEN HOME: Odyssey of an Unusual Sea Bandit, premiered at Achtung Berlin and toured various international festivals. BISCUIT TIN BLUES (2024), developed with support from a Neustart Kultur grant from the German Federal Government, premiered at the Solothurner Filmtage 2025 and has since won several audience and festival awards.

Alongside his work as a director, Jack has spent two decades editing for cinema and television — including six seasons of the children's series WOOZLE GOOZLE, whose episode "Wer regiert unser Land?" received the Goldener Spatz 2026. As an actor, most recently Jack played the lead in BISCUIT TIN BLUES and will make his German television debut in 2026 with an episode of the ZDF comedy series DOPPELHAUSHÄLFTE. In a continued collaboration with Frauke Havemann, he plays a lead in ATMOSPHERIC CONDITIONS, currently in post-production.

As a workshop leader and mentor, Jack has worked with the Deutsches Filminstitut (DFF), the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch, IDFA, and the Deutsche Filmakademie / Bilderbewegen e.V. on the award-winning Mix-it! initiative, and led workshops for the Filmakademie's SPOTS programme in 2023. In 2023 he co-founded studio gyr_rath with costume designer Regina Gyr — an interdisciplinary production label for film, television and theatre. He is an alumnus of the Berlin Talent Campus and the Equinox Europe International Screenwriters' Workshop.

Photo: Vojtěch Rýdl

Filmography:

WRITER & DIRECTOR

2024 - BISCUIT TIN BLUES - Spielfilm. Co-production with Grenzkino GmbH, Joroni and studio gyr_rath. Premiere: Solothurner Filmtage 2025; several audience and festival awards. Supported by Neustart Kultur. Streaming September 2026

2019 - Music Videos: Die Rixdorfer Perlen "Königin von Berlin", She's a Woman "The Art of Pleasing"

2018 - Down Brother Up - teaser film for feature length project in development

2012 - BETWEEN HOME: Odyssey of unusual sea bandit - feature length documentary. Co-production with Hanfgarn & Ufer filmproduktion & Selin Yaman

2006 - OLLI, 35mm short film, German language. HFF Potsdam

2003 - CAPITALISM, short film

2000 - CAMERA IN HAND, mid-length Super 8 essay / documentary.

1997 - BIGGER FISH TO FRY, short 16mm silent film

1995 - RECOIL, student film 16mm RMIT University graduation work.

1993 - TRANS, EXPAND URBAN, experimental student film 16mm

1992 - RHYTHMSCAPES, experimental Super 8 & sound installation, APPLESALUTE experimental student film 16mm & video

1990 - CAMERA WRAP, experimental student video Installation. La Trobe University Library

WRITER

2024 - BISCUIT TIN BLUES feature film

2019 - THE HOFF bio-documentary about David Hasselhoff, outline & script for producers Philip Hohn and Christian Mueller

2017 - 2019 DOWN BROTHER UP feature length screenplay, Stick Up Films GmbH

2006 - HALS & BEINBRUCH sitcom pilot, Nostro Film Berlin

2005 - BIG CITIES SMALL STORIES - short film by Christoph Lukus

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

2022 - Schlamassel - Dir. Sylke Enders / JORONI Produktions- und Verleih GmbH CZAR Film GmbH

ACTOR

2026 - DOPPELHAUSHÄLFTE - ZDF comedy series. Broadcast 2026

2025 / 2026 - ATMOSPHERIC CONDITIONS, director Frauke Havemann. Currently in post-production

2024 - BISCUIT TIN BLUES, director Jack Rath. Lead role

2021 - BE RIGHT BACK, director Frauke Havemann. Premiered at Slamdance

2019 - THE WOMAN WHO SWALLOWED HER HOUSE, director Frauke Havemann

2017 - WEATHER HOUSE, director Frauke Havemann. Premiered at Slamdance

CO-PRODUCER / POST PRODUCTION

2026 - THE EAGLE AND THE MOUNTAIN - debut documentary by Mohammad Abbas.

FILM EDITOR (SELECTED)

2022 - Raising the Steaks (mid-length fiction) in post-production. Dir. Glen Geiger Cole

2009 - present, WOOZLE GOOZLE German children's television show (6 seasons), co-editor Hagen Hinkelmann. Goldener Spatz 2026 (Film & Series Competition) for the episode "Wer regiert unser Land?"

2013 - 2020 numerous industrial films, image films and commercials for the Technische Universität Berlin, Max Planck Institute, Federal Ministry of Health

2012 - ERRORS OF THE HUMAN BODY (Assembly-editor) feature film by Eron Sheean, Instinctive Film, high5films Berlin, MDM Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, Pandastorm pictures.

2011 - 100 DUTCH MASTERS series 'Marc Bijl' 'Tjebbe Beekman' 'Iris van Dongen' Documentary by Ditteke Mensink

2009 - WUNSCHKINDER Documentary German television

2008 - KATRIN UND DIE WELT DER TIERE German children's television series

2007 - PETER MAFFAY: ENCOUNTERS - AN ALLIANCE FOR CHILDREN (co-editor) international documentary. WILDLIFE NANNIES international documentary series

2006 - GREIFSWALD JUGEND AMT German documentary

2005 - MAJORCA: PARADISE OF CRIME German documentary

MORNING EVENING MORNING, short by David Burrows - Le Fresnoy National Studio of Contemporary Arts

2004 - LIEBST DU MICH, Inspired by "Dämonen" from Lars Norén. Installation video by Martin Engler. Camera and Editing

ZWISCHEN DEN WELTEN, short by Daniel Steiner & Project 11 Berlin.

2002 - SWIMMING UNDERGROUND MARY WORONOV documentary by Thorsten Trimpop, Locarno Film Festival, Arte, ORB

2001 - SELBST SCHNITT video installation by Wolfgang Hart, Festival Oberhausen, Kasseler Dokumentarfilm & Videofest Zuviel.tv Kunst Programme Berlin. MY WAY video installation by Funfraumwohnung, Erfurt Arts Museum

1999 - 2000 HURT 16mm, super 8mm, video - feature film by Philip Crawford. Australian Film Critics Special Award, SBS Television, ACMI Collection (Australian Centre for the Moving Image)

1998 - HANGER short by Colin Mowbray. Sydney Tropfest finalist, ABV television.

1995 - GOD MADE LITTLE GIRLS student film by Andrew Mission, Best Editing Award - Montecatini Film Festival Italy

DIRECTOR & EDUCATOR SOCIAL PROJECT WORKSHOPS

2023 / 2025 Deutsches Film Academy 'Spots' / Workshop leader in filmmaking praxis

2013 - 2015 IDENTITY TRILOGY, Deutschen Filmmuseum Frankfurt, Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (BKM) & Kinder- und Jugend-Aliyah e.V.

2016 - 2020 Mix It! Filmproject LET'S THINK ABOUT LOVE, SEHEN HÖREN REDEN, FERNWEH, NACH EINER WAHREN GESCHICHTE, WÄHLE DEINEN WEG, THE CAGE. Deutschen Filmakademie der Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, Bildung, dem Freistaat Sachsen, dem Thüringer Ministerium für Migration, Justiz und Verbraucherschutz, dem Bündnis für Brandenburg Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kultur des Landes Brandenburg Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg

2010 - STAY THE NIGHT, student short, Ho Chi Minh International School. Saigon Student Film Festival

2007 - 2009 SPITZENFLIEGER, DIMENSION X, DURCH DIE DICK DUMME WAND - Bewegliche Ziele e.v.

ART & PERFORMANCE MOVING IMAGE

2001 to present Video and sound for Regina Gyr's productions DOPPLEREFFEKT, PHOBIC INC., AUF DEM RÜCKEN SCHWIMMEN, BARRACCAPOLIS, CRIME+GENIUS, FALLWIND, DER HIMMEL UND SEIN DRECKLOCH, ALPENRÖCHELN III, VORHER / NACHHER / MEINE MUTTER WAR EINUNDSIEBZIG UND DIE SPÄTZLE WAREN IM FEUER IN HAFT, PARADIS SURPRIS, EINSAM LEHNEN AM BEKANNTEN & MENSCHMONSTERMACHINE

2004 - HEUTE MITTAG SITZT ER NICHT IM BEIJING, Palace the Republic Berlin. Editor for Penelope Wehrli's video and sound installation based on Michael Roes's novel 'Der Coup der Berdache'

2003 - EMILY ON THE ROCKS, Podewil Berlin. Performance installation by Penelope Wehrli, video editor and text projection animation

2003 - DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN - Staatsbank Berlin. Video design for Berthold Schneider, Operaworks

1997 - KABOOM: EXPLOSIVE ANIMATION, Curator Philip Brophy. M.C.A Sydney (Museum of Contemporary Art) Direction and production of exhibition films

AWARDS & NOMINATIONS:

2024/2025 - BISCUIT TIN BLUES

• Best Feature Film Award - Sound Screen Film Festival, Ravenna, Italy

• Audience Award for Best Feature Film - Int'l Road Movie Festival, Pilsen, Czech Republic

• Audience Choice, Best Narrative Feature - Pillusion Film Festival, Austria

2016 - MIX-IT (Social Film Project, Workshop Leader)

• Hauptstadtpreis für Demokratie und Toleranz

2011 - KINDER MACHEN KURZ FILME

• Preisträger im Bundesweiten Wettbewerb „Ideen für die Bildungsrepublik"

• Hauptstadtpreis für Demokratie und Toleranz

2005 - OLLI (Kurzfilm, HFF Potsdam)

• Best Foreign Film - FIC Mostoles International Short Film Festival, Madrid

• Honorable Mentions: Next Reel Film Festival, Tisch School of the Arts, New York; Jutro Film Festival, Warsaw; Festival of Nations, Ebensee; Etiuda & Anima Festival, Krakow; Sleepwalkers Film Festival, Tallinn

• FBW Prädikat "Besonders Wertvoll" & FBW Short Film of the Month

1999 - HURT

• Best Editing nomination - AFI Awards (Australian Film Institute)

1995 - GOD MADE LITTLE GIRLS

• Best Editing Award - Montecatini Film Festival, Italy