In December 2007 Boris Schaarschmidt graduated from the American Film Institute (AFI) in Los Angeles earning a MFA in Directing. Being an annual grantee of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and having received the Pat Hitchcock O’Connell Scholarship Award for his exceptional 1st year project 1916, Boris was one of only a few directors at AFI who was given the opportunity to direct two thesis films: As director for SPENT, and as a writer/director for GREEN.
Before starting at AFI, Boris Schaarschmidt worked in different areas of the film industry in Germany and studied Film & Television Design at the University of Applied Science in Dortmund. Simultaneously he gained experience in film & television productions. In the last years he worked on several projects as writer, editor and director in Germany and in the US.
His short film WET SHAVE was screened in over 60 national and international film festivals and was awarded many times. His degree film PROJECTIONS, starring Sabine Postel, was supported by the Filmboard NRW and won the Panther award for the best German production at the International Festival of Film Schools in Munich amongst several other awards. 2004 he and Michaela Ullmann founded the HEAVY B PRODUCTION.
In 2008 his short film ELENORA made it into the top 15 finalists of The Doorpost Film Project for which he produced RETURN TO SENDER for the final competition in Nashville.