Jan-Eric Mack

Biography

Jan-Eric Mack was born in 1983 in Trüllikon ZH, Switzerland. In 2001, he began an apprenticeship as a graphic designer at Atelier 22 in Winterthur. For his final thesis, he won a Junior Award of the Swiss Graphic Designers Association. From 2005, he worked as a graphic designer with various studios. In 2009, he began studying film at the Zurich University of Arts (ZHdK). Since then he has made several awarded short films, which have been shown at festivals all over the world. With the short film Ronaldo (Co-directed by Jan Mettler) he won an award for the Best Short Film at the Solothurn Film Festival in 2010. His diploma film Alfonso, premiered at the 66th Film Festival Locarno and won the Cinema e Gioventù Award in the Pardi di domani Competition. The Zurich University of Arts awarded him with an advancement award in film. Jan-Eric Mack lives in Zurich and works as a freelance director and independent graphic designer. In 2017, he received his Master’s degree in feature film directing at the Zurich University of Arts. His graduation film, Facing Mecca, was awarded with the Student Academy Award in the category “Narrative” at the 44th Student Academy Awards in 2017 and shortlisted in the section “Live Action Shorts” at the 90th Academy Awards. Facing Mecca won the Swiss Movie Award for Best Short Film in 2018.