Since 2019, Helen has directed commercials for clients such as Qatar Airways, Coca-Cola, Vinted, and the EU Commission, as well as numerous music videos and fashion films. Her experimental short Tem Fé premiered at FEST in Portugal, won Best Experimental Film 2025 at the Austrian Film Festival, and is currently on its international festival run.
Her feature documentary Alma Anciana, shot in Cuba, Portugal and Austria & co-directed with DoP Fabio Mota, was released in cinemas across Portugal in 2024 and is now available on the platform Filmin.
In the summer of 2023, Helen was invited to join BAFTA as a Connect member to further deepen and enrich her career as a Director. She is currently in post-production on her first fiction project, the funded short film Text Me When You’re Home, shot in Vienna with Silver Bear–winning actress Thea Ehre about the savety of women in urban spaces.
Helen Esther Aschauer is a Cuban-Austrian director and choreographer whose work moves between the worlds of cinema, fashion, and movement. With roots in dance and theatre, her storytelling is driven by rhythm, emotion, and the tension between beauty and truth. Her films often explore the human condition especially the female perspective, through striking visual composition and an instinct for timing - blending elegance with rawness, and sensitivity with edge.
Short Bio: Helen started classical ballet aged three in Moscow and continued most of her education in Austria. She moved on to study contemporary dance 2009 at Iwanson School of Contemporary Dance in Munich seeking more freedom of movement & expression. Shortly after graduating in 2012, Helen successfully auditioned for a london based company. She went on to work as a professional dancer in London for the next 5 years, touring through the UK, Lithuania and Austria. She worked in several commissions of the Royal Opera House London as well as in operas, commercials, music videos and feature films. Helen had her choreographic debut in Austria 2015 in Bizet´s Opera “Les Pecheurs des Perles” at Theater and der Wien. 2018 she had the pleasure to work as an Assistant Choreographer to Arthur Pita in the Feature Film “Charlie´s Angels”. After moving to Vienna she started working as a post- production producer for Red Bull Media House, mostly overlooking projects such as Batalla de los Gallos and BC One for the Latin-American market. In 2019 she started getting more and more into directing commercials, music videos & fashion films. Her first immersive dance piece “Entre Portas” about domestic abused she created and supported by Estudios Victor Cordon in Lisbon premiered in 2020.
Photography: Irina Ferreira and Fabio Mota