Josephine Ehlert

Born and raised in East Berlin, Josephine has loved stories since she can remember. She wants to hear, play, read and write them herself. Children book characters Ronja, Pippi, the Red Zora, Gretchen Sackmeier, Michel, Momo are perhaps her best friends. In Berlin’s FEZ amusement park she receives a Pegasus booklet as her first award in a story competition. And so writing becomes her very own world of possibilities and exploration. That is still the case today. Josephine loves the unlimited possibilities, the wide worlds, the goose bumps and above all her characters. Each one of them a universe for themselves. They are loved for their genius and abysses, for their search, failure and longing. And their constant desire to express themselves and communicate.
Josephine has written theatre plays since she was 14. As part of the P14 theater club at  Volksbühne Berlin, the first full-length production “Plattenspiel” was created. During her acting studies in Vienna, several award-winning plays for off-theaters followed.
In 2011 she began to write screenplays. Her first short film “The Time Between” won the Karl Buchrucker Prize, the German film industry’s “Particularly Valuable” FBW seal of quality and it was shown on ARD national television as part of a theme week on dying. Josephine wrote several short films that she produced herself, in which she can mostly be seen in front of the camera. In 2013 she wrote her first feature film “Schattenwald”, co-produced the following year with Lebog-Film, Construction Film and FFF-Bayern. With “Friedenshöhe” (20 ‘) came her directorial debut in 2015. Since then, she realized another award-winning short film, “Class Trip to the Future.” She has just finished writing her first novel and is working on several stories that are currently available in synopsis, treatment or  completed script. Josephine Ehlert lives with her family in Hamburg. In her stories, she seeks freedom in the head and heart, always humor and social relevance. She firmly believes that stories make the world better because they let hearts heal and create shared experiences. Josephine is a passionate mom, cook, camper, boxer and thankful every day for her colorful life and the ideas that come to her.

© Porträt: Kimi Palme