Profile

Denise Hauser is a Swiss film director, writer-director, and artistic researcher working across fiction, documentary, live-action, and animation. Her practice has developed across Zürich, London, New York, and Norway, and is currently based in Trondheim.

She is the founder of Studio Hauser, her creative film practice specializing in directing, hybrid storytelling, screenwriting, artistic research, and creative development. The studio also offers workshops, mentoring, panel participation, and creative consultancy, and pursues artistic research grants alongside project-based film work.

Her films have screened at more than 100 international festivals, including Nordisk Panorama, Tallinn Black Nights, Animafest Zagreb, Fantoche, and the Hiroshima and London International Animation Festivals. Her work spans audiences from children to adults, often centering on complex female protagonists, and draws on interdisciplinary approaches, including the interplay between dance and film and the combination of digital and analogue techniques. A central concern is care – how caregiving, often seen as separate from creativity, can instead inform and enrich artistic practice. She engages in alternative production methods that make room for embodied knowledge, intuition, and slowness.

Alongside her filmmaking, she has taught at NTNU (Film & Video Production, Drama & Theatre), Høyskolen Kristiania (Animation, Visual Communication), and worked as an Assistant Professor in Film & TV Production at Nord University. In the commercial sector in New York and Oslo, she has directed films for clients including the Smithsonian Archives of American Art and DOGA Norway. 

She holds a PhD in Artistic Research from NTNU (2026) – where she was the first PhD fellow in Artistic Research at the Department of Art and Media Studies – an MA in Directing Animation from the Royal College of Art (2008), and a BA in Graphic Design from Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design (2006).

CAREER OVERVIEW

2026: Founded Studio Hauser (ENK), Trondheim, NO

2008-2025: Independent Director / Filmmaker in New York and Norway - represented by Hornet Inc. (NYC), Ataboy Studios (NYC), and Wemake Film (Oslo)

2021-2025: PhD Fellow in Artistic Research at NTNU / IKM, Trondheim, Norway

Aug-Dec 2025: Lecturer at NTNU’s Department of Art & Media Studies (HFO1002, FVP3010)

Nov 2019-Jan 2020: Video Producer at NTNU Drive & NTNU Multimedia Center

Apr-Dec 2019: Founding Partner and Director at Herstory Film, Trondheim, Norway

Oct 2019: Guest Lecture (Film & Video Production) at Department of Art & Media Studies, NTNU

Aug-Dec 2018: Assistant Professor in Film & TV Production at Nord University (FTV2105, FTV2103)

2008-2010: Lecturer in Animation, Visual Communication, and Illustration at Kristiania University of Applied Sciences, Trondheim, Norway

1997-2001: Apprenticeship as a Visual Merchandiser at Migros Zurich, CH



EDUCATION OVERVIEW

2021-2025: PhD in Artistic Research
Defended: March 6, 2026
NTNU, Trondheim, NO

2006-2008: MA in Directing Animation
Royal College of Art, London, UK

2002-2006: BA in Graphic Design
Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, UK

1997-2001: Federal Vocational Baccalaureate in Design
GBMS Zurich, CH

1996/97: Foundation Course in Art & Design
Zurich University of the Arts, CH

1993-1996: Secondary School
Sekundarschule Ruggenacher, CH