Jacob Burckhardt

Jacob Burckhardt is the Founder and Executive Producer of upperfast, a commercial production company based in Berlin and Stuttgart. An alumnus of the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, he founded the company while still studying, guided by a simple conviction: that human intention should lead the process, and that technology, however advanced, works best in service of the idea behind it.

Since 2021, that approach has carried upperfast into global campaigns for brands including Visa, UNHCR, and Daimler — work that pairs traditional film craft with a genuine curiosity about what’s possible. Jacob moves freely between analog processes and new technology, combining them without dogma, and is drawn to the solutions more established workflows tend to overlook: not for their own sake, but because the safe route often leaves the better idea untouched.

For Jacob, craft is less a set of techniques than a series of considered choices, each answerable to the story being told. He keeps a critical eye on the work and the reasons behind it, and treats every tool — film or otherwise — as a means rather than an end.

An active member of the Art Directors Club (ADC), Jacob is committed to championing young directors and helping them turn early promise into work that lasts.

All 2026 Jury