Angela Schanelec
Angela Schanelec (born 1962 in Aalen, Germany) is a German filmmaker, screenwriter, and former actress, and a leading figure of the Berlin School. After studying acting and working in German theater, she studied directing at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (dffb), alongside filmmakers such as Christian Petzold and Thomas Arslan. Her films, including My Sister’s Good Fortune (1995), Places in Cities (1998), Marseille (2004), and Afternoon (2007), established her distinctive style of minimalist dialogue, fragmented narratives, long takes, and deliberate ellipses. Her cinema explores alienation, memory, family, grief, and the difficulty of human communication. Later works include The Dreamed Path (2016), I Was at Home, But… (2019), which won the Berlin Silver Bear for Best Director, and Music (2023), which won the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay.