Biography
André Hörmann, born in Bremen in 1975, first studied politics and economics in Berlin from 1997 to 2000. In 2006 he began studying film directing at the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film 'Konrad Wolf' in Potsdam-Babelsberg (today: Filmuniversität Babelsberg). During his studies he realized several short documentaries and feature films; for several of these works the scripts were written by his fellow student Katrin Milhahn, with whom he later collaborated again. As a DAAD scholarship holder, Hörmann lived for eight months in Hanoi (Vietnam), where he made the short documentary "Drei Leben Hanoi" in 2005, and then for eight months in Mumbai (India), where he shot the 16-minute documentary "Calcutta Calling". The film premiered at the Max Ophüls Prize Film Festival in January 2006 and was later named Short Film of the Month by the Wiesbaden FBW.
After graduating, Hörmann began working as a freelance film director and lecturer (including at the University of Ulm) in 2007. In 2008, he made the animated documentary "wandlitz.tokyo" in Japan (together with Sönje Storm). In 2010, he was a fellow at Villa Aurora in Los Angeles together with Katrin Milhahn; there, the two worked on a project about screenwriters in Hollywood, which, however, was not realized. During a fellowship at the Villa Kamogawa of the Goethe-Institut Tokyo, André Hörmann began working on the documentary animation film "Obon" together with the Russian filmmaker Samo. In this film, the two dealt with the traces of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima as well as the survivors and their memories; the film was released six years later.
Meanwhile – and back in Germany – Hörmann realized several documentaries for the children's channel KIKA: for the series "Schau in meine Welt" he made "Andrew – Mit Pauken und Trompeten" (2014), about a socially disadvantaged teenager from New Orleans who dreams of a jazz career; at the Chicago International Children's Film Festival Hörmann was awarded Best Director for this film. For the KIKA series "Stark!" he made "Crowley – Jeder Cowboy braucht sein Pferd" (2015), about an eleven-year-old who lives with his father on a ranch in Colorado. This film was nominated for the Golden Sparrow Children's Media Award and for the European Children's Film Association Award. The sequel "Crowley – Bleib im Sattel" (2018) celebrated its world premiere at the DOK Leipzig festival and received a special award at the Aspen Shortsfest (USA).
Also in 2018, the above mentioned "Obon", which was started in 2012, finally premiered at the Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film. Numerous other festival participations around the world followed, including Sundance and the SWXS Festival in Austin, Texas. At the Duisburg Film Week, the film won one of the main prizes; at the Chicago International Children's Film Festival, it received the Youth Jury Award for Best Film.
André Hörmann realized his first feature-length documentary with "Im Ring" ("Ringside",DE/US 2019), about two teenagers from the notorious South Side of Chicago who try to break out of their social circumstances through boxing. The film won the Silver Hugo Award at the Chicago International Film Festival. Hörmann then wrote and directed the narrative feature film "Nachtwald" (2021) together with Katrin Milhahn, an adventure story about two boys who go in search of a mysterious cave in the mountains as well as the vanished father of one of them. This film also won several awards: at the Cinekid Film Festival (Amsterdam) as Best Youth Film, at the Schlingel Film Festival (Chemnitz) the award of the European Children's Film Association ECFA and at the Giffoni Film Festival (Italy) as Best Film and the Clear Channel Award for Creativity and Innovation. The theatrical release was in November 2022.
In February 2022, Hörmann's "Mahendra Highway" had been released, a travel documentary about a trip on the 1024-kilometer Mahendra Highway, which runs across the entire southern Nepal. Parallel to these two films, he began to work on the documentary feature "The Young American", the third part of his series about the young "up-and-coming cowboy" Crowley (start: estimated 2023).
André Hörmann lives and works in Munich and Los Angeles.