Patrick Vollrath

Patrick Vollrath is a German filmmaker who emerged from the Vienna Film Academy with a reputation for crafting taut, emotionally devastating short dramas. His work explores moments of domestic crisis with an unflinching eye and a refusal to offer easy resolutions.

His short film Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut, 2015) follows a father who picks up his daughter for a routine weekend visit — only for the day to take a deeply unsettling turn. The film’s controlled tension earned Vollrath the Bronze Medal at the 42nd Student Academy Awards and an Academy Award nomination for Best Live Action Short Film at the 88th Academy Awards. It also screened as a Manhattan Short Film Festival finalist.

Vollrath’s directorial approach favors slow-building suspense rooted in recognizable domestic situations. His debut feature, 7500 (2019), starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a pilot dealing with a hijacking in real time, premiered at the Locarno Film Festival and demonstrated his ability to sustain unbearable tension across feature length. Critics noted the same precise, pressure-cooker storytelling that distinguished his short work.

Finalist Filmography

• Everything Will Be OK — Manhattan Short 2015 Finalist