Hanno Höfer


Hanno Höfer is a German-Romanian movie director, producer and musician.
When he was about one year old, he moved to Bucharest due to his parents' work, but when their home was damaged in the 1977 earthquake, he returned to the Banat region where he stayed for 4 years at his grandparents' home. Then he went back to Bucharest to attend the German Lyceum. After graduation, he failed the university entrance examination to study foreign languages in Bucharest, so he worked for a while as a translator in Bucharest and then as an actor at the German Theater in Timișoara. In 1988, he emigrated with his family to Germany.
Between 1990 and 1992 he studied South-Eastern European History and Ethnology in Berlin, then he had a scholarship at the Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj, and later, between 1994–1998, he studied Movies and Directing at the Academy for Theatre and Film in Bucharest. Here he met Cristian Mungiu, with whom later he established the production company "Mobra Films".
He directed a few short movies amongst which Telefon în Străinătate, Dincolo and Ajutoare umanitare. Those brought him 3 prizes, at the Munich International Festival of Film Schools, at the Bucharest's CineMAiubit Festival and the grand prize of the Cottbus Film Festival of East European Cinema.

Current projects

Currently he works together with Cristian Mungiu on the cinematographic trilogy Amintiri din epoca de aur.

Music projects

In his musical career Höfer is a member of Nightlosers, a Romanian rhythm and blues band, where he plays guitar, harmonica, washboard and vocals. He also plays in the Orient Express band of the jazz player Harry Tavitian.

Prizes won

Director