Biography

Jochen Alexander Freydank is a German film director. Freydank has directed feature films, TV movies, commercials and stage plays, and won various awards, including an Academy Award for his short film Toyland in 2009.

Jochen Alexander Freydank was born in 1967 in East Berlin. He started his career as an editor and assistant director. He is also known as a screenwriter for television and film productions and worked as a producer. He produced one of Germany's most successful TV series. In 1999 he founded his film production company, Mephisto Film.

Freydank's first short film was the macabre comedy Happy End, followed by the short film Emergency. In 2002, he wrote and directed Duty, which had its world premiere at the Montreal World Film Festival. Freydank then directed, co-wrote and produced the short film Toyland, which won more than 30 international awards. In February 2009 TOYLAND won the Oscar for best live-action short film.

Freydank's directorial credits include feature films and TV movies, among them HOMEFRONT, ALLMÄCHTIG, Tatort, and the tragicomedy UND WEG BIST DU, which won the best director award at Bayerischer Fernsehpreis. In 2010 Freydank directed the stage play Johnny Chicago at Berliner Volksbühne. In 2013/2014 he wrote, directed and produced the feature film KAFKA'S THE BURROW. The film had its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival and its European premiere at the Warsaw International Film Festival. 2014 Freydank wrote and directed GROSSE FISCHE – KLEIE FISCHE, followed by three prime-time movies for German TV in 2015: DER WILDE SVEN, the thriller ZORN – WIE SIE TÖTEN and ENGELMACHER, a police crime drama. In 2016 he directed the TV movies DÜNNES EIS and TRUGSPUR. He then directed two German TV movies in Barcelona, Spain: ÜBER WASSER HALTEN and TOD AUS DER TIEFE, and in 2017 the thriller "DAS JOSHUA PROFIL" based on the best selling novel Das Joshua Profil by Sebastian Fitzek. In 2018 he realized another thriller: DEIN LEBEN GEHÖRT MIR and 2019 a four episodes miniseries called DU SOLLST NICHT LÜGEN. In 2020 another literary adaptation followed: ZERO. Zero is a dark social media thriller based on the bestselling novel by Marc Elsberg starring Heike Makatsch.2021 he directed a miniseries called HERZOGPARK for RTL+. In 2022 he wrote and directed the miniseries RIESENDING - JEDE STUNDE ZÄHLT, based on a true story. The award winning German, Austrian, Swiss, Croatian coproduction told the story of the extremely challenging rescue of a cave explorer in Europes deepest cave and was released July 2023 on Netflix. Freydank is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.