Till Nowak was born 28 July 1980,[5] in Bonn, Germany, and until 2008 lived in Mainz.[6] He was born to artistic parents; his mother taught ceramics to children and his father was a painter and teacher.[7] At age 19 in 1999, he founded and began work in his own studio FrameboX.[3] From 2000 to 2005, he studied media design at the University of Applied Sciences in Mainz.[6][8][9] He has collaborated with his brother Nik Nowak, and states when the two get together the ideas flow.[10]
For his thesis project at the University of Applied Sciences, in 2005 Nowak wrote, directed, and produced Delivery, a 9-minute animated film which screened at more than 200 international film festivals, winning more than 35 awards, including those from AFI Fest Hollywood, Annecy International Animated Film Festival, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Kurzfilmpreis, and a nomination from the European Film Awards. He had first shared the film on an internet forum discussing simulated 3-D in film, the resulting attention included hundreds of emails with job offers and festival invitations.[11]
After leaving Mainz in 2008, Nowak took up residence Hamburg.[6] He is a member of both the German Film Academy and the European Film Academy. In spring of 2013, he was signed by UTA.[1] In April 2015, Nowak and his family moved to Los Angeles, California.[4]
Projects
Till Nowak is known for his 2005 film Delivery, his 2011 art piece The Experience of Fliehkraft, and the related award-winning 2011 film The Centrifuge Brain Project.[12] The latter two focus on a series of odd (and physically impossible) rides that he was inspired to create when visiting an amusement park in 2008.[13] Creating the sequences for the seven rides took three months, spread out through 2008 and 2011.[14]The Experience of Fliehkraft debuted in 2011 as part of the solo exhibition "A Lot of Civilisation" during "Walk of Art" at Prototyp Museum in Hamburg, Germany.
As Nowak began sharing his faux blueprints and realistic clips as part art installations, he released The Centrifuge Brain Project. Its creation was inspired by wanting "to create an even stronger clash between realism and absurdity."[14] Choosing a realistic approach, he used the mockumentary style to allow viewers "to feel as if they were eye witnesses", and "to enhance the impact of the idea."[14] As part of the film's plot, he creating a fictional research company and hired an actor to play the firm's Chief Engineer. Nowak had the monologue concept in his head for a while, but the script was written just two days before filming. Nowak stated, "I had no technical reference for the short film. I created the manipulated amusement rides and the techy talk just out of my own scientific humor. They are a mix of real physics, absurdity and deliberate contradictions. The goal was to create the biggest possible mistake, but still make it sound serious and convincing."[14] Filming took two days – one day in an actual amusement park and one day in a laboratory – and editing took two months.[14][22]
Filmography
Epiphania (2005) (visual effects)
Delivery (2005) (writer, director, producer)
Göring - Eine Karriere (2006) (art director)
Rommels Schatz (2007) (digital artist)
Rommels Krieg (2007) (visual effects)
Zum dritten Pol (2007) (visual effects)
Mythos & Wahrheit – Der Kennedy-Mord (2007) (visual effects supervisor)
Die Eylandt Recherche (2008) (visual effects supervisor)
Flucht in die Freiheit – Mit dem Mut der Verzweiflung (2009) (animator)
Flucht in die Freiheit – Mit allen Mitteln (2009) (animator)
Der Wettlauf zum Südpol – Deutschland gegen Österreich (5 episodes, 2011) (animator)
Der Wettlauf zum Südpol – Amundsen gegen Scott (1 episodes, 2011) (animator)
In 2006, after Delivery had screened at Audi Festival of German Films in Australia, Die Woche in Australien Called Nowak a "rising young star" and praised Delivery as a successful exploration.[23]Variety made note that Nowak "is a well known artist who made a splash with his directorial debut of the short film, The Delivery in 2005 which went on to win numerous awards including the Jury Award for Best Short and Audience Award for Best Short at the 2005 AFI Festival."[1] When under 2015 Oscar consideration, his film Dissonance is described to be "Evocative of Christopher Nolan’s surreal Inception, as well as Michel Gondry’s sci-fi standout, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.[4]
