David Schurmann

David Schurmann is a film director, producer, screenwriter, explorer, author, speaker, CEO and public figure.

Schurmann, best known for directing Little Secret, Brazil's official 2017 Oscar entry, began his filmmaking journey at age 13 by documenting his family's first circumnavigation of the globe. He trained in film and television in New Zealand and later in the United States, working internationally as a director and producer of films, TV programs, and documentaries.

As a key figure in the Schurmann Family Adventures, he filmed extensively during the Magellan Global Adventure (1997–2000). In 2007, he released his first feature film, The World Twice Around, a documentary that won multiple awards and was broadcast on the Discovery Channel.

In 2011, Schurmann created Missing, a successful transmedia horror mockumentary. He also produced and directed the documentary U-513 Lonely Wolf (2009–2012), about the search and discovery of a German submarine off the coast of Brazil.

His fiction film Little Secret, based on his adopted sister's story, was a critical and commercial success. In 2017, he directed the Orient Expedition series for National Geographic. Schurmann and his family later launched Voice of the Oceans, a global initiative against ocean plastic pollution, supported by the UN Environment Program.

In 2022, he directed My Penguin Friend, starring Jean Reno and Adriana Barraza. Schurmann is a film director, producer, CEO, author, speaker, and chairman of the Schurmann Group.