Downloadable CV & Bio
Each document comes two ways: on white, to file and print, and on black, the branded version. Biographies can also be copied as plain text.
Filmography
3 pp
Full Filmography & CV
The complete record — television, film, short films, artistic direction, education and memberships.
1 p
Selected Filmography
One page — series, features, selected television films, artistic direction and training.
Biography
≈ 80 words
Biography — Short
A tight paragraph for programmes, catalogues and listings.
≈ 130 words
Biography — Medium
A fuller portrait for press notes and festival programmes.
≈ 260 words
Biography — Long
The full career narrative for profiles and feature press.
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.
Maria von Heland is a Swedish writer and director based in Berlin. She trained at the California Institute of the Arts under Alexander Mackendrick and works across feature film and international television in Swedish, English and German. Her early shorts — among them Real Men Eat Meat, shot in Mongolia — travelled the international festival circuit and won the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Award; her first feature, Big Girls Don't Cry, brought the screen debuts of Anna Maria Mühe and Karoline Herfurth. She has since written and directed features and television in Sweden and Germany, and co-created the international series Heirs of the Night, 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.
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.