International TV series · 26 × 25′ · ZDF / ZDF Studios / Red Balloon Film / Umedia
Creator · Writer · Director — 26 episodes
Maria
von Heland
Writer · Director · Series Creator
Maria von Heland is a Swedish writer and director based in Berlin, working across feature film and international television in Swedish, English and German. Trained at the California Institute of the Arts under Alexander Mackendrick, she has made films in Sweden, Germany, the United States, Denmark, Belgium and Mongolia. Her credits include the features Big Girls Don't Cry, Sök and Hilde, and the series Heirs of the Night and Sunshine Eyes. From 2008 to 2018 she was Artistic Director and Writer of the European Film Awards.
Television
Slava the Dog · Slava der Hund
TV series 6 × 15′ & feature cut 90′
Creator · Writer · Director
- Nominated — Prix Jeunesse International, 2024
- Nominated — Series Mania 2024, Best Series (Short Forms Competition)
Miniseries · 10 episodes
Creator · Writer · Director — 10 episodes
- Winner — Séries Mania 2022, International Panorama Jury Award
Heirs of the Night · Die Erben der Nacht
International TV series · 26 × 25′
Co-Creator — 26 episodes · Screenplay, Episodes 1–13
- Nominated — International Emmy Kids Award
- Winner — Goldener Spatz
- Winner — White Elephant Art Award
Der Teufel mit den drei goldenen Haaren
TV film · ARD
Director
- Nominated — International Emmy Kids Award
TV film · ARD
Director
- Winner — Bayerischer Fernsehpreis, Best Direction
- Winner — Best of the Fest, Chicago International Children's Film Festival
- Nominated — International Emmy Kids Award
Film
Writer
Co-Writer
Writer · Director · Producer
- Winner — Guldbagge 2006, Best Supporting Actress
- Nominated — Guldbagge 2006, Best Actress
Big Girls Don't Cry · Große Mädchen weinen nicht
Writer · Director
- Winner — Goldener Biber
- Nominated — New Faces Award
Short Films & Early Work
Feature · 35mm · WDR / DOM-Film
Co-Writer · Director
- Nominated — Shooting Star, Baden-Baden, 2000
Short · 25′ · 35mm · black & white · MinFilm / Tossell Pictures
Writer · Director
- Winner — Grand Prix du Court Métrage, Valenciennes 1999
- Winner — Best Short Film, Cork 1999
- Winner — Best Black-and-White Short Film, Cork 1999
- Winner — Best Short Film, Dresden 1999
- Winner — Best Short Film, Bamberg 1999
Documentary by Peter Brosens & Dorjkhandyn Turmunkh
Narrative Voice-Over Writer
- 18 international awards, including Grand Prix — Visions du Réel, Nyon, and Best Script — MediaWave, Győr
Short · 10′ · 35mm · BR / ARTE · Tossell Pictures
Writer · Director
- Winner — Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Short Film Award, 1997
- Winner — FIPA d'Argent, Biarritz 1998
- Winner — Grand Prix du Court Métrage, Valenciennes 1998
- Winner — International Canal+ Award, 1998
- Winner — Danzante de Bronce, Huesca 1998
- Winner — Multicurta Award, São Paulo 1998
- Certificate of Merit, Bombay 1998
Artistic Direction
The European Film Awards
Artistic Director & Writer
Teaching
Akademie für Darstellende Kunst Baden-Württemberg
Acting & Writing
Alma Löv · Sweden
Acting & Writing
Raindance
Acting & Writing
Education
California Institute of the Arts · Los Angeles
Master of Fine Arts, School of Film and Video · Mentor: Alexander Mackendrick
Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen · Babelsberg
Exchange student, Directing · Mentor: Egon Günther
Acting Studio Maurice Sarrazin · Paris
Acting
Rider College · Lawrenceville, NJ
Bachelor of Arts, Journalism · cum laude
Hagen-Berghof Studio · New York
Acting
Memberships & Roles
- European Film Academy — Member
- European Women's Audiovisual Network (EWA) — Member
- Bundesverband Regie (BVR) — Member
- ProQuote Film — Member
- Verband Deutscher Drehbuchautoren (VDD) — Member
- Tindra Film, Berlin — Founder
Biography
Maria von Heland was born in Sweden and trained as a filmmaker in the United States, at the California Institute of the Arts, where she studied under Alexander Mackendrick. She has been based in Berlin for most of her working life and works in Swedish, English, German and French.
Her early shorts carried her work across the festival circuit — from Biarritz to São Paulo, Bombay to Valenciennes. Chainsmoker and Real Men Eat Meat, the latter shot in Mongolia, won prizes including the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Award and the Grand Prix du Court Métrage. Her first feature as writer-director, Big Girls Don't Cry (2002), brought the screen debuts of Anna Maria Mühe and Karoline Herfurth.
As a screenwriter she has written England!, The Rainbowmaker, Hilde and Hector and the Search for Happiness. In Sweden she wrote and directed Sök and the television drama Den som viskar, with Pernilla August. For German television she has made fairy-tale films, primetime crime and drama, and co-created the twenty-six-episode series Heirs of the Night with Diederik van Rooijen, filmed across six countries. From 2008 to 2018 she was Artistic Director and Writer of the European Film Awards.
In 2021 she founded Tindra Film in Berlin with Johnny West. Sunshine Eyes, written and directed during the Berlin lockdown, won at Séries Mania. She recently directed Slava the Dog for ARD and NDR, and is currently in production on Alea Aquarius, co-produced by Red Balloon, Maze Pictures, ZDF, ZDF Studios and Umedia.