Education
University of Television and Film Munich.
University of Television and Film Munich.
Finsterwalder has directed several shorts and documentaries and is the director of the 2013 feature film Finsterwalder spent part of her early life in the United States before studying literature and history at Humboldt University in Berlin. Before beginning her career as a director, Finsterwalder worked as an assistant director at Berlin’s Volksbühne theatre and the Maxim Gorki Theatre. In addition to this, she worked as an editor for the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung before returning to study documentary film direction at the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München in Munich.
In 2005 Finsterwalder directed her first short film, 0.003 km.
Finsterwalder cites films by directors Wes Anderson, Terrence Malick and Paul Verhoeven amongst influences for her debut feature film. After directing her first short, Finsterwalder worked with Stephan Hilpert to direct ("Because a man is human").
In 2010, Finsterwalder directed her second documentary film, ("The Great Pyramid"). Finsterwalder’s first feature-length film, which was co-written by the Swiss writer Christian Kracht, was premiered at the Munich Film Festival in July 2013.
The film follows the stories of twelve central characters played, amongst others, by Sandra Hüller, Jakub Gierszał, Ronald Zehrfeld, Margit Carstensen, Carla Juri, Michael Maertens and Corinna Harfouch.
Reception and acclaim has been shown in many countries across the world to critical acclaim. The film also received the award for Best Picture at the 2014 Vancouver International Women In Film Festival. The film received nominations in five categories for the 2014 Deutscher Filmpreis awards: Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Musical Score.
Sandra Hüller received the Lola award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the film.