# Peter Luisi

Peter Luisi (born 1975) is a Swiss film director, producer and screenwriter. His films include Verflixt verliebt (2004), The Fraulein and the Sandman (2011), Bon Schuur Ticino (2023) and The Last Screenwriter (2024).

## Early life and education

Luisi grew up in Switzerland as the son of an Italian father and an American mother. After finishing school in Zurich, he studied film and video production in the United States, initially at the University of North Carolina Wilmington until 1996, then at the University of California, Santa Cruz until his bachelor's degree in 1998.

## Career
### Production company

Luisi worked for two years as a film editor in the advertising industry until he founded his own production company Spotlight Media Productions AG in Zurich in 2000. His brother, producer David Luisi, is also involved in this production company. Peter Luisi, described by the Neue Zürcher Zeitung as an auteur filmmaker, has since worked as a film director, screenwriter, and producer.

### Film career

In 2004, Luisi made his debut as a feature film director with the comedy Verflixt verliebt, which was nominated for the Swiss Film Award in the Best Fiction Film category and won the Feature Film Award by the Filmfestival Max Ophüls in Saarbrücken. Luisi also worked on screenplays without being involved as a director, such as Vitus in 2005 and Länger leben in 2010. Vitus starred Bruno Ganz and premiered at the Berlinale 2006. It won the Swiss Film Award and was shortlisted for an Academy Award nomination in the category Best Foreign Language Film.
Luisi's third directorial work The Fraulein and the Sandman received the Audience Award at the 2011 Filmfestival Max Ophüls and another nomination for the Swiss Film Award for Best Fiction Film. In 2014, Luisi's comedy-drama Unlikely Heroes about asylum seekers rehearsing a performance of Schiller's Wilhelm Tell was released and was honoured with the Audience Award at the Locarno Film Festival. In 2017, his comedy Flitzer was released with the comedian and actor Beat Schlatter as co-screenwriter and leading actor. In 2021, Luisi made his second drama film Prinzessin, following Boys Are Us in 2012. Another collaboration with Schlatter took place in 2023 with the satirical film Bon Schuur Ticino, which is about a scenario in which multilingual Switzerland is determined to have only one national language. With almost 340,000 tickets sold by then, Bon Schuur Ticino became one of the ten most successful Swiss films of all time in March 2024.
In 2024, Luisi's film The Last Screenwriter was released, which received attention due to its production story. The film script, about a screenwriter who realizes that artificial intelligence can write better than he can, was written entirely by ChatGPT under Luisi's direction. Luisi said that he wanted to contribute to the ongoing debate about the use of AI in the film industry and announced before completion that he would release the film online free of charge for this reason. The film was seen as controversial, a London art house cinema cancelled the premiere screening after criticism on the internet. In the same year, La Storia del Frank e della Nina by Paola Randi, which Luisi co-produced with Fandango Media in Italy, premiered at the Venice Film Festival and won the festival's Magic Lantern Award.

### Television career

Together with comedians Dominic Deville and Patrick Karpiczenko, Luisi developed the late-night comedy show Deville Late Night, which aired on SRF 1 from 2016. Luisi also worked on the show for several years as a producer and writer. Other television formats realized by Luisi's Spotlight Media were the sketch show Twist – die Sketchcomedy (2013) and the crime comedy miniseries Advent, Advent (2020).

## Awards (selection)

Luisi's films are screened at film festivals around the world. As of 2024, he has received a total of 55 awards and 16 nominations.
Swiss Film Awards
* 2005: Nominated in the Best Fiction Film category for Verflixt verliebt
* 2007: Nominated in the Best Screenplay category for Vitus
* 2011: Nominated in the Best Short Film category for Die Praktikantin
* 2011: Nominated in the Best Fiction Film category for The Fraulein and the Sandman
* 2011: Nominated in the Best Screenplay category for The Fraulein and the Sandman
* 2024: Nominated in the Best Screenplay category for Bon Schuur Ticino
Zürcher Filmpreis (Zurich Film Award)
* 2004: Award for Verflixt verliebt
Filmfestival Max Ophüls Prize
* 2004: Nominated for the Max Ophüls Prize for Verflixt verliebt
* 2004: Förderpreis Langfilm (Sponsorship Award for feature film) for Verflixt verliebt
* 2011: Nomination for Best Feature Film for The Fraulein and the Sandman
* 2011: Audience Award for The Fraulein and the Sandman
Locarno Film Festival
* 2014: Audience Award for Schweizer Helden
Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival
* 2011: Silver Méliès Award for The Fraulein and the Sandman

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Functions |
| 1994 | Verflixt verliebt | Director, screenwriter, producer |
| 2006 | Vitus | Screenwriter |
| 2006 | Love Made Easy | Director, screenwriter, producer |
| 2010 | Die Praktikantin | Director, screenwriter, producer |
| 2010 | Länger leben | Screenwriter |
| 2011 | The Fraulein and the Sandman (Der Sandmann) | Director, screenwriter, producer |
| 2012 | Boys Are Us | Director, screenwriter, producer |
| 2014 | Unlikely Heroes (Schweizer Helden) | Director, screenwriter, producer |
| 2016 | Love and Loopholes | Producer |
| 2017 | Flitzer | Director, screenwriter, producer |
| 2021 | Prinzessin | Director, screenwriter, producer |
| 2023 | Bon Schuur Ticino | Director, screenwriter, producer |
| 2024 | The Last Screenwriter | Director, screenwriter, producer |
| 2024 | La storia del Frank e della Nina | Producer |

### Television

| Year | Title | Functions |
| 2002 | Feuer oder Flamme (TV movie) | Screenwriter |
| 2013 | Twist – die Sketchcomedy (TV show) | Director, screenwriter, producer: 8 episodes |
| 2016–2019 | Deville Late Night (TV show) | Producer: 64 episodes, writer: 19 episodes |
| 2020 | Advent, Advent (TV mini-series) | Producer: 4 episodes |