Sebastian Brauneis

Brauneis was born in Vienna in 1978. He studied film studies and medicine in Vienna.^[1][2]

His father, Carl Brauneis, worked as a war correspondent and cameraman.^[3] Brauneis has also long worked as a DJ in Vienna.^[4][5]

In 1999, Brauneis joined the independent Viennese television channel TIV, where he worked with Wolfgang Kopper on the programme Schwerpunkt Allgemeines.^[6]

From 2002 onward, he directed more than forty episodes of the ORF programme Sendung ohne Namen.^[7] He later collaborated with Christoph Grissemann and Dirk Stermann on Willkommen Österreich and also worked on formats including Demokratie. Die Show.^[8][9]

In 2014, he directed the ORF/Superfilm satire Bösterreich, starring Nicholas Ofczarek and Robert Palfrader.^[10]

His debut feature film, Zauberer, based on a story by Clemens J. Setz and co-written with Setz and Nicholas Ofczarek, premiered at the Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis in Saarbrücken in 2018 and had its Austrian premiere at the Diagonale.^[11][12] For the screenplay, Brauneis received the Thomas Pluch Screenplay Prize (Jury Special Award) in 2018.^[13]

His later feature films include 3freunde2feinde (2020), 1 Verabredung im Herbst (2021), and Die Vermieterin (2023).^[14][15][16] Die Vermieterin was discussed in the press in connection with Vienna’s housing crisis and Brauneis’ own experiences searching for an apartment.^[17][18]

In late 2024, he began shooting AMS – Arbeit Muss Sein, a feature film about Austria’s Arbeitsmarktservice (AMS). The film premiered at the Diagonale in 2026.^[19][20]

Brauneis has taught at the Max Reinhardt Seminar since 2014, where he has led courses in camera acting, and has also taught at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.^[21][22][23]

In 2025, ORF FM4 journalist Christian Fuchs included Brauneis among a group of contemporary filmmakers he described as an "Austrian New Wave".^[24]

• 2018 – Thomas Pluch Screenplay Prize – Jury Special Award for Zauberer^[25]