Robert von Dassanowsky

Robert von Dassanowsky FRHistS, FRSA (January 28, 1965 – October 10, 2023) was an Austrian-American academic, writer, film and cultural historian, and producer.

A student of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and a graduate of UCLA (MA, PhD), where he also served as Visiting Professor of German, Dassanowsky was a widely published academician, independent film producer, playwright, and had written for television.

He was professor of German and Visual and Performing Arts, and founding director of film studies at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs since 1993, and became particularly known for his influential scholarly work on Austrian author Alexander Lernet-Holenia, German filmmaker and photographer Leni Riefenstahl,[1] and on Austrian and Central European film.

[4] He served on several editorial and advisory boards of literary publications in the U.S., Canada, Austria and Poland, including Osiris, Rampike, Poetry Salzburg Review, Journal of Austrian Studies, Colloquia Germanica, Studia Germanica Posnaniensia of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and the Journal of Austrian-American History.

The English translation of Austrian playwright Felix Mitterer's treatment of the life of Nazi resister Jägerstätter by Gregor Thuswaldner and Dassanowsky (University of New Orleans Press 2015) received its American staged dramatic reading premiere under the direction of Guy Ben-Aharon at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York in December 2016.

The Archduke and Herbert Hinkel (2013) directed by Christine Beebe (in which he also appears), the dramatic shorts Menschen (2012) and The Retreat (2010), the feature film Wilson Chance (2005), and the award-winning Semmelweis (2001).

Angels of Darkness based on Sheridan Le Fanu's gothic novel Carmilla starring Stephen Rea and Eleanor Tomlinson (2014), and of the feature biopic The Creep Behind the Camera directed by Pete Schuermann (2014).

[citation needed] Dassanowsky was a member of Mensa (U.S.A.) and the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George (Spanish branch).

[13] In addition to various other grants, the Foundation annually sponsors the juried Elfi Dassanowsky Prize (1,000 Euros) for a work by a female filmmaker, which was first presented to Norwegian artist Inger Lise Hansen for Parallax (2009) at the Vienna Independent Shorts Film Festival in June 2010.