TSPDT

Key Production Country: Germany
Key Genres: Comedy Drama, Domestic Comedy, Drama, Psychological Drama, Romantic Drama, Slice of Life
Key Collaborators: Janine Jackowski (Producer), Heike Parplies (Editor), Silke Fischer (Production Designer)

"Maren Ade has slowly and persistently become one of the most exciting filmmakers in Germany and since her rousing comedy Toni Erdmann she is considered to be the saviour of German cinema… Maren Ade, a member of the so called Berliner Schule, a group of filmmakers who made a name for themselves with sober, even unwieldy, everyday stories, has been classed as superficial, but the concentration, sensitivity and especially the sense of humour that go into Ade’s character dramas prove her to be a filmmaker in a league of her own. Even her university graduation film Der Wald vor lauter Bäumen (The Forest for the Trees) that was shot with a video camera – a study of the increasing desperation of a young teacher – bears the hallmark of particularly masterful direction." - Birgit Roschy (Goethe Institut, 2017)

"Ade is a film director, screenwriter and producer. Based in Berlin, she released her first feature film in 2003, The Forest for the Trees, about the difficulties faced by a young school teacher moving to a new school. The film was essentially an exercise in film training, as it was her film thesis for the University of Television and Film in Munich. Since then Ade has made two more feature films; Everyone Else and Toni Erdmann. Both films demonstrate the evolving sensibility of Ade – both comic and loaded, ambivalent and unabashed." - Pelican Magazine, 2017

"In 1998 Maren Ade began studying film production and direction in Munich. During her studies she co-founded the film production company Komplizen Film with Janine Jackowski. Since then she has been working as a writer, director and producer… As a producer she worked on films like Tabu by Miguel Gomes, Sleeping Sickness by Ulrich Köhler and Western by Valeska Grisebach amongst others." - La Cinetek

"The now Berlin-based director sky-rocketed to international attention following the release of her third feature, the oddball but moving comedy, Toni Erdmann in 2016… In an industry increasingly dominated by expensive and explosive special effects, Ade’s films feel particularly necessary on account of their sensitive foregrounding of her character’s inner lives, weaving humour and empathy together." - Sleek Magazine, 2020

"While German cinema continues to have a low profile on the international circuit, Ade belongs to a generation of adventurous independent directors who have been quietly making a reputation over the past two decades." - Jonathan Romney (The Observer, 2017)