Nicolas Steiner is a Swiss director, screenwriter and film producer.
During his school years he worked as a gravedigger in his home state (Valais). He was first trained as a drummer/percussionist in the Swiss Army’s military music – the only elite unit without a weapon obligation. He studied ethnology and film science at the University of Zurich before being admitted to the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg. His diploma film “Above and Below” (2015) received several prestigious awards, including two LOLA’s (German Film Award for Best Documentary Film and Best Camera) and three Quartz (Swiss Film Award for Best Documentary Film, Best Editing, Best Mix). He was a Fulbright Scholar at the San Francisco Art Institute, Artist in Residency at the toy factory, Brooklyn and received the Rünzi Award in 2016. He is a member of the European and Swiss Film Academy. Steiner had teaching assignments in Switzerland, Germany and the US (e.g. University of Pittsburgh, Bern University of the Arts, Potsdam University of Film and Television, Hamburg University of Fine Arts, University of Massachusetts, Seattle Northwest Film Forum etc).