Florian Habicht

Who is Florian Habicht?

'Florian Habicht is a New Zealand film director. Florian was born in Berlin, Germany and moved with his family to the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, when he was eight. He went to high school in Kerikeri before attending the University of Auckland's Elam School of Fine Arts.

There he began to make films using his classmates as actors and collaborators. The first of these to gain recognition was Liebestraume, about eccentric musician Killer Ray.

In 2003 he made the digital feature Woodenhead, a surreal musical fairytale for which the entire soundtrack was recorded first and then the visuals were shot to match Woodenhead was nominated in the Best Digital Feature section of the New Zealand Film and TV Awards and the film screened at a range of international festivals as well as being distributed in the US by Olive Films.

His next film Kaikohe Demolition was a portrayal of Kaikohe's demolition derby, the film won Best Digital Feature at the New Zealand Screen Awards.

In 2003 Habicht attended the Binger Institute Filmlab in Amsterdam to develop his feature script Permissive Paradise.

In 2008, he completed Rubbings from a Live Man, a documentary performed by it's subject, theatre practitioner and artist Warwick Broadhead.