» When the Spice Girls took over the world in 1997, there was only one question on my mind: How do I get to the cinema to watch "Titanic"? Not because I was interested in the love story at the time. No, I was a die-hard Titanic fan. My room was full of Titanic books, posters, and floor plans. I knew everything about the ship and wished so much to be able to experience once what it might have been like on this ship. When I finally made it into the movie, my dream became a reality. From then on, my passion for the constructed reality we call film was awakened, and it didn't take long for me to understand that film would allow me to experience everything without having to live with the consequences. After all, in the end, I didn't want to drown. «
André Szardenings was born in 1989 in Düsseldorf, Germany. After high school, he worked for several commercial production companies, mainly as a DoP and for films like Cloud Atlasdirected by Tom Tykwer in the location department. After five years, he felt that even though he liked cinematography, he was more interested in directing and working with actors. He applied at the international film school Cologne (ifs) for the directing class and was accepted. He finished his studies with his feature film BULLDOG, which was immediately nominated for the most significant German newcomer award: First Steps Awards. Since he knew how to handle a camera, he not only directed BULLDOG but also did the cinematography and wrote the script. BULLDOG had its world premiere at the 43rd Max Ophüls Film Festival and went on to win the Best Feature Film “Made in Baleares” award at the 11th Mallorca International Film Festival as well as the Best Feature Film Debut award at the 44th Biberach Film Festival.
Following the success of BULLDOG, André was invited to shoot four episodes, including the first two episodes of the season, of the German adaptation of Euphoria. The series premiered at the Munich Film Festival, was praised by critics, and was nominated for the 62nd Grimme-Preis 2026.
André loves to tell stories as authentic and emotional as possible, and by being a director and DoP at the same time, he can be as close to the actors as possible and almost be part of each scene. Since he loves cinema as much as telling stories as short as a 15-second commercial, he always tries to combine the narrative film world with the visual commercial world.
He likes shooting on his RED Gemini with a set of vintage lenses and is always looking for new special filters to produce a more natural and less digital look. He mostly tries to get as close to the final look in-camera as possible. If he’s not on a shoot, he usually enjoys spending his time traveling, mainly in warm countries with a lot of sunlight!
André speaks fluent German and English, is based in Düsseldorf, Germany, and currently thinking about moving to Barcelona.
