Vita
ILJA NIENABER was born in the cathedral city on the Pader River and moved to the cathedral city on the Rhine in 2013 for his first production internship, driven by his fascination with transforming dreams into moving images. During his journalism traineeship, he was responsible for various RTL and DMAX formats as a director. He then spent a year experiencing the beauty and warmth of the „aussies“ Down Under, surrounded by koalas and onions. Back in Cologne, he took his first jobs on film sets with Cologne Film Productions as a set prop assistant. With another internship in directing department, he paved the way for his long-standing job as 3rd and 1st assistant director. Among other things, he worked on productions such as the ZDF series ‘Wilsberg’, ‘Tatort Köln’ and the award-winning series ‘Uncivilized’ . As a discoverer of stories, the native of East Westphalia is fascinated by humanity itself – and has always had a longing to tell his own stories. He has been studying at the ifs since 2025.