Franziska Buch | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1960-11-15)15 November 1960 (age 65) Stuttgart, Germany |
| Occupations | Film director Screenwriter Film producer |
| Years active | 1987-today |
Franziska Buch (born 15 November 1960 inStuttgart) is a Germanfilm director andscreenwriter.[1] In her work she concentrates on issues that deal with childhood and youth. The main topic in almost all of her movies is family and its difficulty shown out from children's perspectives. Franziska Buch is mainly known for the movieEmil and the Detectives (2001). In addition, she teaches Scriptwriting at the Film Academy in Ludwigsburg since 1996. She is also the principal of the screen-play atfilm academy of Baden-Württemberg since 2002.[2]
After studyingphilosophy andGerman philology atStuttgart University as well as atRome University Franziska Buch graduates with an M.A. In 1986 she moved on to theUniversity of Television and Film Munich.[3] She started with the short feature filmDie Ordnung der Dinge (The order of things), for which she won the European Short Film Award in Berlin 1987. One year after Buch directed a 45-minute feature filmTod eines Idioten (Death of a fool) that was co-produced with the Bavarian Television. Her graduation filmDie ungewisse Lage des Paradieses (The uncertain situation of paradise) is a children's film that shows a girl escaping from reality into a bizarre dreamworld. It was shown in cinemas in 1993 and is to be seen as her debut feature film.
Since 1991, Buch has worked as a freelance author and director. From 1993–1994, Buch was a fellowship-holder at the Screenplay Workshop Munich. She wrote several screenplays for the TV crime seriesO.K. (1993/1994, Bavaria Film) andFaust (1994/1995, ZDF). At the same time, she completed the 45-minute TV film essay on the life and work of Else Lasker-Schueler,Mein Herz – Niemandem (1994).[3]
Finally she manages the breakthrough withVerschwinde von hier (Disappear out of here) in 1999.[2] The film is about a young man caring affectionately about his partner's son because he is neglected by his mother. The film won the Max-Ophuels Prize in the category "Best Movie" as well as theGerman Film Award for the best screenplay in 2000. In her further children's and family's movies she continues focussing on the issue of family that is often described from the children's perspectives: The literature filmings ofErich Kästner'sEmil and the Detectives (2001) andThe Flying Classroom [de] (2002) as well as the comedyUnsere Mutter ist halt anders (2003) (Our Mother is just different) were published. Her commercially most successful movie so farBibi Blocksberg and the Secret of the Blue Owls [de] (2004) counts 1,3 million spectators and was awarded as the Best film atChicago International Children's Film Festival.
In spite of her success with cinema feature films, Franziska Buch shifts her focus to television in the following years. She directs high-quality children, youth and family films such asHeimliche Liebe – Der Schüler und die Postbotin (2005) (Secret Love: The Schoolboy and the Mailwoman) about a boy that falls in love with an older woman while he is on holiday andPatchwork [de] (2008) about two single parents and their attempt to found a family with their kids. Buch's next cinema featureHere Comes Lola! [de] was published in 2010. Similarly to her debut filmDie ungewisse Lage des Paradieses (1992) the story is about a girl handling with her problems and fears by escaping into a fantasy world.
This is followed byAdieu Paris (2012), a film showing rather adult topics and problems. Several completely different people meet in the metropolis Paris and start to structure their lives in a new way.[2]
2011/2012:Im Alleingang – Die Stunde der Krähen (In Single-handedly – The Crows' Hour)[2]
Awards
Nominations
