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Michael Krummenacher, born on 9 July 1985 in Schwyz, Switzerland, made his first short films as a schoolboy and after graduating from high school he took part in a film workshop at Columbia University in New York City. In 2006 he began studying directing at the University of Television and Film Munich (HFF). While still a student, he founded the production company Passanten Filmproduktion together with Peter Baranowski in 2009. With Passanten Filmproduktion he produced his feature film debut "Hinter diesen Bergen" (2010), about a friendship between girls in a small Swiss town. The film was shown at the Hofer Filmtage 2010. In addition, Krummenacher made several short films, of which the 28-minute "Wenn alle da sind" (2012), about an eventful summer trip by eleven-year-old schoolchildren, was nominated for the German Short Film Award.
Michael Krummenacher's HFF graduation film "Sibylle" ("Like a Cast Shadow", 2013-2015), about a mother whose reality is increasingly becoming a nightmare, premiered at the Berlinale 2015 in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section. The film opened theatrically in February 2016.
Shortly before that, the joint directing project "Heimatland" ("Wonderland", CH/DE 2015) initiated by Krummenacher was awarded the Bern Film Prize 2015 and was honoured with the prize for socially relevant film at the Saarbrücken Film Festival Max Ophüls Prize 2016. At the Bern Film Prize and the Film Prize of the City of Zurich, "Heimatland" won the Best Feature Film awards.
Over the next few years, Krummenacher worked primarily as a producer, for example on the documentary "Die Temperatur des Willens" (2017) and the short feature film "IOX" (2017). As a director, he realized the end time series "8 Tage" ("8 Days") together with Stefan Ruzowitzky for the streaming service Sky in 2018. The series accompanies different characters in the last days before a huge asteroid is supposed to destroy the earth. The first two episodes were shown in February 2019 at the Berlinale in the series Berlinale Series. The release on Sky followed on 1 March 2019.
His three-parter "Preis der Freiheit" (DE/CZ 2019), about the lives of three sisters in the FRG and the GDR, which also aired in 2019, won four German Television Awards, including the prize for Best Multi-part.
Krummenacher turned to a completely different field with the children's film "Der Räuber Hotzenplotz" (DE/CH 2022), based on the story of the same name by Otfried Preußler, featuring Nicholas Ofczarek in the title role and also an illustrious cast in total. Subsequently, in the feature film "Landesverräter" (DE/CH, start: 2023), he again dealt with historical topics, namely the still controversial case of the Swiss Ernst Schrämli, who was executed as a traitor during World War II for dealing with German agents.