Jonatan Etzler
Jonatan Etzler is a Student Academy Award®-winning writer and director. He is making genre films to explore complex issues for a wide audience. His stories are surprising, original and sometimes provocative or satirical, depicting outcasts – ordinary people struggling against the heavy structures of society. He is a stylish director with grand visuals and atmospheric soundscapes.
Born in 1988 in Stockholm, Sweden, Jonatan has directed an impressive total of 17 shorts that have won acclaim around the world. His most recent short, Swimmer, won the 2021 Best Comedy award at Clermont Ferrand, the biggest short film festival in the world. It also received a rave review in The Guardian.
Jonatan directed the feature One More Time (2023) for Netflix, written by Sofie and Tove Forsman. The story follows Amelia (Hedda Stiernstedt) as she gets hit by a bus on her 40th birthday. When she wakes up, she suddenly finds that the year is 2002 and she's 18 again – allowing her to right all the mistakes she made the first time round. But as she finds herself stuck in a Groundhog Day time loop – waking up every morning on her 18th birthday – she realises there's something else going on that will need to be fixed before she can leave the past behind forever.
Jonatan was the second unit director for Beartown (2020) at HBO. His latest work was the feature film Bad Apples (2025). It is a satirical comedy with thriller elements, produced by Vice-owned Pulse Films and starring Golden Globe-winning Saoirse Ronan. The film is written by Jess O’Kane, adapted from Rasmus Lindgren’s debut novel De Oönskade.
Agent: Elin Sandström Lundh
Selected works
Screen Time - (working title) feature film (screenwriter/director) - in development
Bad Apples - feature film (director) - 2025
One More Time - feature film (director) - 2023
Björnstad/Beartown - series (second unit director) - 2020
Badaren/Swimmer - short (screenwriter/director) - 2020
Get Ready With Me - short (director) – 2019
Pinnen/The Stick - short (screenwriter/director) – 2019
Samlag/Intercourse - short (screenwriter/director) - 2017
De andra barnen/The Less Fortunate - short (director) - 2017
Önskedrömmar/Make a Wish - short (director) – 2016
Jag följer dig/I Follow You - short (screenwriter/director) - 2015
Åka Utför/Class Trip - short (screenwriter/director) - 2014
Awards & nominations
Screen Time
Sandrews screenplay grant 2021
SVT original feature script competition 2020
Badaren/Swimmer
Fernand Raynaud Best Comedy Award at Clermont Ferrand Short Film Festival 2021
Official selection at AFI Fest 2020
Uppsala International Short Film Festival 2020
Göteborg Film Festival 2020
Get Ready With Me
Student Academy Award 2018
Best Production at Munich Film School Festival 2019
Grand Prix at Cinemaforum, Warsaw 2019
Nominated for Best of the Year at Vimeo
Staff Pick Premiere at Vimeo
Nominated for Best Nordic Short at Nordisk Panorama 2019
Samlag/Intercourse
Grand Prix - Best Short at UK Film Festival 2018
Nominated for Best of the Year at Vimeo
Staff Pick Premiere at Vimeo
World premiere at South by Southwest 2018
Make a Wish
Nominated for Best Nordic Short at Nordisk Panorama 2016
Official selection at Aspen Shortsfest, Milano Film Festival, Flickerfest, Lübeck Nordic Film Days
I Follow You
Best Short (honorary mention) Brest International Film Festival 2016
Åka Utför/Class Trip
Best Children's Short in Oberhausen Short Film Festival 2015
Bad Apples
One More Time | Official Trailer | Netflix
Get Ready With Me
Beartown: Official Trailer | HBO
Swimmer - trailer
INTERCOURSE
One More Time