Robert Cibis

Robert Cibis (born 21 March 1973) is a German film director and film producer. He is best known internationally for directing Pianomania (2009), Jesus Loves You (2008), and Disgustingly Healthy (2009).

In 1996, Robert Cibis started his studies at the Sapienza University of Rome through an Erasmus Scholarship. He focussed on The Modern American Film. After one year, he studied Film Science at the University of Paris-Sorbonne.

In 2000, he took part at the Media II - Training Programme Corpus, deepening his knowledge about "Management and Legal Aspects of a Production Company". From 2001-02, Robert was part of the Masterclass at the German-French Film Academy, which included sessions hold at the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg and at La Fémis in Paris. He completed his education through an advanced training for directors, producers and authors at the Eurodoc 2006 and in the Masterclass for international coproduction at the Discovery Campus Masterschool.

Robert Cibis started directing and producing his own films in 2003. In coproduction with ZDF, the 8min documentary Half a Chance was created, which gained the German-French Journalism Prize. After Human Capital (2004) and Is Europe Going To Hell? (2004), the two-part documentary Disgustingly Healthy - Leeches and Maggots (2006) drew the viewer's attention being one of the first films with a detailed and scientific insight on the medical procedure.

This film was followed by the documentary Jesus Loves You (2008), which premiered at the 58th Berlin International Film Festival, the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, the Sheffield Doc/Fest and the Kraków Film Festival. Cibis' most remarkable documentary turned out to be Pianomania (2009), a 93 min feature-length documentary, which won several prizes and talks about the work of the famous tuner Stefan Knüpfer as he finds himself on the eternal search for the perfect tone while working with star pianists, such as Lang Lang, Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Till Fellner.

• 2003: German-French Journalism Prize
• 2009: Best Sound at the German Film Prize, Best Editing at the Diagonale in Graz, Prize of the International Critics' Week in Locarno, Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival

• http://www.deutscher-filmpreis.de/
• http://www.diagonale.at/
• http://www.semainedelacritique.com/
• http://www.sffs.org/