“Just when you thought that dogma had reinvented cinema for the last time, the directors Paulus & Hillebrand conjure up the magic of the unexpected for the screen with an unusual method and an equally unusual heroine.” 

Geri Krebs, NEUE ZÜRCHER ZEITUNG  
about WHEN THE RIGHT ONE COMES ALONG

Awards (selection)

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Max Ophuls Prize — 1995
Study Award of the Solothurn Government — 1997
Special Mention San Sebastian IFF — 2003
Best First Feature Award Berlin & Beyond FF, San Francisco — 2004
Best First Feature Award Festroia, Setubal — 2005
Best Artistic Contribution Award Cairo IFF — 2008
Award for Filmmaking of the Solothurn Government — 2008
Nomination Best Feature Film Swiss Film Awards — 2009
SUISA Best Music Award Locarno IFF — 2009

Oliver Paulus was born in 1969 in Dornach, Switzerland. After attending School of Fine Arts in Basel, he studied directing and screenwriting at  Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in Germany.


“The work of both directors, Stefan Hillebrand and Oliver Paulus, can without question be understood as politically active. (…), in Hillebrand and Paulus, you encounter real people – who are hit with dialects, warts, strange facial expressions and restricted growth. And how these characters are caught off guard and collide with each other, without buffers, driven purely by raw affects – it is amusing and touching, like a communicative bumper car in a subtly eroticised depiction of home and working life.”

Eva Mar, SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG 
about SO LONG, MY HEART!



Oliver has been awarded numerous international film prizes, including the Max Ophüls Prize, the Work of the Year Award and the Recognition Prize of the Canton of Solothurn, an honourable mention at the San Sebastián IFF and the Best Artistic Contribution Award at the Cairo IFF.

Filmography

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WHEN THE RIGHT ONE COMES ALONG, 2003  —  feature film
Special Mention, 51st San Sebastián IFF 2003  
SO LONG, MY HEART!, 2006  —  feature film
Special Critic’s Award, Schermi d’Amore IFF Verona 2007

TANDOORI LOVE, 2008  —  feature film
Best Artistic Contribution Award, 32nd Cairo IFF 2008

KEEP ROLLIN’, 2013 —  feature film
Nominated Best Feature Film, Hessian Film Awards 2013

LEVEL UP YOUR LIFE!, 2018 —  feature film

MAKING A CHANGE, 2018 —  documentary

BERNADETTE WANTS TO KILL, 2024 —  feature film

Short films

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HIS MOTHER’S VOICE, 1994 —  short film
REALITY, 1996 —  short film
THE DAY OTTO CAME, 1997 —  short film
ON THE TILES, 1998 —  short film
THE PRESENT, 2001 —  short film
THE BUTCHER’S BRIDE, 2001 —  short film
THE ILLITERATE, 2007 —  short film

Projects in development

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THE LATE ALAN MILBRANDT —  feature filmdirector, co-author with Maria Shehata and Justin Edgar, production: 104 FILMS, MOTORFILM

KASPERLI —  feature film co-author with This Lüscher, production: LANGFILM

JULIA & RAMI —  feature filmco-director, co-author with Stefan Hillebrand, production: MOTORFILM