Anne Zohra Berrached
Anne Zohra Berrached (born 31 July 1982 in Erfurt) is a German film director and screenwriter. Life and career. The daughter of an Algerian father, Anne Zohra Berrached was born and raised in the GDR. Following specialized secondary school in art, she earned a university degree in social pedagogy. Anne Zohra Berrached worked for two years in London as a drama teacher before spending one year abroad in Cameroon and Spain. In the year of 2009, Anne Zohra Berrached directed her debut short movie "Der Pausenclown (The Class Clown)" about a Lebanese neighbour and comedian who lived  in Berlin-Neukölln. Later the movie was broadcast on the German television network WDR. In the same year, after an unsuccessful attempt to get in to Film University Potsdam, Anne Zohra Berrached started her education at one of the most famous film universities of Germany, Filmacademy Baden-Wurttemberg in Ludwigsburg. Her first feature-length film Zwei Mütter (Two Mothers) is about an homosexual couple who audition men to collect their sperm for having a child. With Two Mothers, Anne Zohra Berrached received the main award of the section Perspective German Cinema at the 63rd Berlinale. In February 2016 Anne Zohra  Berrached presented her second film, 24 Wochen (24 Weeks), at competition of the 66th Berlinale. The movie is about a pregnant comedian (Julia Jentsch) and her husbands (Bjarne Mädel) decision over a legal abortion for their unborn child diagnosed with down syndrome. This was the first breach of the topic of legal late term abortion in cinema and was considered taboo for over 90% of women in Germany facing a similar situation. 24 Weeks was her final degree project before she graduated from film school. As being the only German film in competition, 24 Weeks received the award of Guild  German Filmartist (Gilde Deutscher Filmkunsttheater) for best picture. 24 Weeks was also honoured with the Silver Lola of Best German Film 2017 at the German Film Awards. In 2018, Berrached was appointed to the international jury of the 53rd Chicago Film Festival. Her third feature film, "Die Welt wird eine andere sein" (international title: Copilot), was funded in part by the coveted Arte Grand Accord grant. Berrached was shooting in the U.S. and Lebanon for the first time. In 2021, she received an invitation to the Panorama section of the Berlinale. The relationship drama is based on the biography of  Lebanese terrorist Ziad Jarrah. With an estimated budget of six million euros, the film was the largest feature Berrached has directed to date, winning the first prize in the Feature Film Competition and the Popular Jury of the prestigious Italian Lucca Film Festival and Europa Cinema. Berrached directed a total of three episodes of the ARD television crime series Tatort. Tatort: Der Fall Holdt, reached an audience of 10.22 million viewers when it was first broadcast in 2017. Berrached has taught directing workshops for the Goethe-Institut in Cairo, several ones in Mexico for the Festival International de Cine de  Guadalajara, and in Germany at the Filmakademie BW. She lives and works in Berlin.