Christian Alvart was born in 1974, near Frankfurt, Germany, amidst a strict Christian background that prohibited films and television, making movies a forbidden fruit in his childhood. Rarely allowed to watch a movie, he developed an insatiable fascination and love for the subject matter, quickly becoming an "expert" among his friends by reading about films, their making, and the novels or source material they were based on.
As he grew older, he finally gained access to films and couldn't stop watching, often visiting the cinema six times a week. In 1990, he started making small video and Super-8 films with his friends, which led to him becoming part of a network of hobby-filmmakers and geeks. Many of his peers were professionally working in lower positions on movies, creating their own projects in their free time.
At the age of 19, Alvart became an editor and layout designer with the X-TRO Filmmagazin, working his way up to editor-in-chief and eventually owning the special interest publication. In 1997, he decided to make his own films again and moved his company, Syrreal Entertainment, to Berlin to get a glimpse into the world of "professional filmmaking". He started as a runner, working his way up again to 1st AD on two features within the same year.
In 1998, Alvart wrote, produced, and directed Curiosity & The Cat, his first 35mm feature film, a low-budget thriller that cost only $30K. Many of his friends from his Frankfurt days were part of the project, which was nominated for the Max-Ophüls-Award and the Prize of the Minister President of the State Saarland.
After working as a writer for several German features and TV shows, Alvart debuted Antibodies, his second work as a director, in 2005. When it premiered at The Tribeca Film Festival, he was named as one of "Five Directors To Watch" and the "German New Face of Cinema" at The AFI Festival. Antibodies was also invited to the Edinburgh Film Festival, as well as many others, winning numerous awards.
