Maren Ade (German:[ˈmaːʁənˈʔaːdə]; born 12 December 1976) is a Germanfilm director, screenwriter and producer. Ade lives in Berlin, teaching screenwriting at theFilm Academy Baden-Württemberg inLudwigsburg. Together with Janine Jackowski and Jonas Dornbach, she runs the production company Komplizen Film. She is best known for her filmToni Erdmann, which was nominated for anAcademy Award.
Ade was born inKarlsruhe, West Germany. As a teenager, she directed her first short films.[1]
In 1998, she began studying film production and media management, and later film direction at theUniversity of Television and Film (HFF) in Munich,[2] which she successfully completed in 2004.[1]
In 2001, Ade co-founded the film production company Komplizen Film together with Janine Jackowski, a fellow graduate from HFF.[2] It was with Komplizen Film that she produced her final student filmThe Forest for the Trees at HFF in 2003. Among other honors, the film received the Special Jury Award at theSundance Film Festival in 2005.The Forest for the Trees was screened at a large number of international festivals.
In 2012, Ade announced she would be writing and directing a film calledToni Erdmann about a man who begins to play pranks on his adult daughter after he finds she has become too serious.[3] The film debuted In Competition at the2016 Cannes Film Festival, the first German film to debut there in 10 years.[4] The film won the top prize at theEuropean Film Awards (Best European Film), thus making Ade the first woman to direct a movie that won the top prize at those awards.[5]
Ade lives with directorUlrich Köhler and their two children in Berlin.[2][6]
In December 2023, alongside 50 other filmmakers, Ade signed an open letter published inLibération demanding a ceasefire and an end to the killing of civilians amid the2023 Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, and for a humanitarian corridor into Gaza to be established for humanitarian aid, and the release of hostages.[7][8][9]
Abel, Marco (2013). "Maren Ade: Filming between Sincerity and Irony".The Counter-cinema of the Berlin School. Boydell & Brewer. pp. 249–273.ISBN978-1-57113-438-7.
