The Festival kicks off with Greetings from Fukushima by the versatile and award-winning German director Doris Dörrie, who will present the film in person. The film received several nominations and awards in Germany.

Doris Dörrie was born May 26, 1955, in Hannover. In 1973 she moved to the USA for two years in order to study acting and film at the University of the Pacific, Stockton, California. She also studied at the New School of Social Research in New York. In 1975, she returned to Germany and attended the Academy for Television and Film (Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film-HFF) in Munich. In 1978 she graduated with her movie The First Waltz (Der erste Walzer).

Afterwards she worked on several films including Paula from Portugal (Paula aus Portugal) and Inbetween (Dazwischen). Her movie Straight through the Heart (Mitten ins Herz) was shown at the Venice Film Festival and at the Tokyo International Film Festival.

Dörrie’s movie Men (Männer) was a great international success with more than 6 million visitors in Germany alone. 

In 1987, Dörrie began to publish short stories, novels and children’s books. The movie Nobody Loves Me (Keiner liebt mich) is based on characters of one of her short stories. 

In 2002 she wrote the first part of Mimi – the children’s book series happened to be of great success. In the following years she published more books and was manifolds rewarded for her work as a writer. In 2006 she received the German Book Award for the novel The Blue Dress (Das blaue Kleid).

At the same time Dörrie shot several very popular and successful movies, e.g. Am I Beautiful? (Bin ich schön?), Enlightenment Guaranteed (Erleuchtung garantiert) Naked  (Nackt), How to cook your life, Cherry Blossoms (Kirschblüten – Hanami), The Hairdresser (Die Friseuse), Greetings from Fukushima (Grüße aus Fukushima), Cherry Blossoms and Demons (Kirschblüten und Dämonen). All of the movies won German Film awards and awards at festivals around the globe. 

Since 1997, Dörrie is qualified as a professor and holds the chair of the department of Creative Writing at the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film (HFF) in Munich. Beside her profession as a film director, Dörrie also staged 7 operas. So far she has made 32 films, published 23 books and has been honored with over 30 awards. 

She is a member of The American Academy Of Motion Pictures.