Stefan Schaefer

Stefan Schaefer is an American writer, director and producer of films and television.

Early life and education
Schaefer was born in Boston, spent his childhood in Sussex, England and his adolescent years in Michigan and New York. He studied theater and political theory at Wesleyan University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. Following a year and a half in Germany—where he studied as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Kiel—he returned to New York and co-founded the production company Cicala Filmworks.

He is the maternal grandson of polar explorer and ornithologist Carl R. Eklund.

Career
Schaefer's films have premiered and won awards at festivals such as the Berlin International Film Festival and SxSW, and have been released theatrically and via outlets such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO, PBS and the Sundance Channel.

He has over fifteen feature film credits to his name and has worked with Melissa Leo, Ali Larter, Zoe Lister-Jones, Ken Duken, Nicole Beharie, David Harbour, and Michael Imperioli. In addition to these indie features, Schaefer and writing partner Chris Silber wrote four TV movies for European networks ARD and ZDF, two of which filmed in Hawai’i.

Schaefer directed the one-hour television documentary Contested Streets, which looks at what New York can learn from London, Paris and Copenhagen in terms of organizing its streets and public spaces. The film screened at environmental film festivals and aired as part of "The Green" series on the Sundance Channel. In 2015, he released a feature documentary on Poet Laureate and environmental activist W.S. Merwin, entitled Even Though the Whole World Is Burning. A one-hour version of the film, W.S. Merwin: To Plant a Tree, was broadcast nationwide on PBS in 2016.

Awards and nominations

 * 2002 - Berlin Talents, Berlin International Film Festival
 * 2003 - New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Screenwriting
 * 2004 - Grand Prize in Digital Filmmaking from Apple and Panasonic
 * 2004 - Writer-in-Residence, Omi International Arts Center
 * 2005 - Best Screenwriter Hamptons International Film Festival, Confess
 * 2007 - Washington Jewish Film Festival: Audience Award Arranged
 * 2007 - Berkshire Int'l Film Festival: Audience Award Arranged
 * 2007 - Brooklyn Int'l Film Festival: Best Film Arranged
 * 2008 - Berlin International Film Festival: Teddy Award for Best Feature Film 'The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela''
 * 2008 - Skip City Int'l Film Festival: Grand Prize, $100,000 award for Best Film Arranged
 * 2011 - Brooklyn International Film Festival: Best Producer My Last Day Without You
 * 2011 - Big Island Film Festival: Audience Choice Award Get A Job
 * 2012 - Black Reel Awards: Best Original Song My Last Day Without You (nominated)
 * 2012 - Black Reel Awards: Best Independent Feature Film My Last Day Without You
 * 2018 - Writer-in-Residence, [an Cab Literary Residence]
 * 2018 - Maui Film Festival: Best Hawaiian Short Film I Am Because You Are
 * 2020 - Hawaii International Film Festival: Made-in Hawaii Best Feature Aloha Surf Hotel (nominated)
 * 2021 - Hawaii Film Critics Society: Best Hawaii Feature Film Aloha Surf Hotel (nominated)
 * 2022 - Individual Artist Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts.