Biography
Bettina Oberli, born 1972, in Interlaken, Switzerland, started to study in the department Film/Video at Zürich’s Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst in 1995 and graduated with a diploma in 2000. Her graduation film, the short film "Supernova", ran in the short film competition of the 2001 Film Festival "Max Ophuels Prize". Oberli"s following short film "Ibiza" (2002) won the award as "Best children’s film" at the 2002 Oberhausen Short Film Festival.
In 2005, Oberli made her feature-length debut with "Im Nordwind", a drama about the father of a family who keeps his layoff a secret from his wife and his children and pretends to go to work regularly every morning. Highly praised by critics, "Im Nordwind" won the Zürich Film Award as well as the "Direction Award" at the Schwerin Art of Film Festival. With her next film "Die Herbstzeitlosen" ("Late Bloomers"), however, Oberli covered a completely different topic: The comedy about four elder ladies who open a lingerie boutique became the most successful Swiss motion picture of the 2006 movie season and also received a number of strongly positive reviews by critics.