Maya Duftschmid

Born in Munich, Maya and her two siblings grew up in a magically secluded place surrounded by wild meadows and dark forests – also known as the Allgäu. The big wide world was brought into her hermit life by an old tube television, projecting thrilling images onto her fresh wide open eyes and flushing her with pure awe. During this time she learned to love the dimensions of cinematic storytelling, but also became aware of the impressionable power of media images. A firm believer in the undeniable impact cinematic realities can have on our society, Maya is drawn to filmmaking that acknowledges its social scope while still being entertaining. She likes to fill her characters up with Weltschmerz and a deep search for meaning. And even though she doesn’t shy away from the human abyss, her stories always strive for the silver lining.

After graduating from high school in 2012 Maya volunteered for a small film festival in her hometown. There she got to learn from filmmakers from around the world and has been closely associated with the wonderful festival team ever since. She returned to the big city to work in the sacred halls of Bavaria Film and on international sets as a production and director’s assistant for “That Trip We Took With Dad“ by Anca Lazarescu. From 2015 to 2020 she studied screenwriting at the HFF Munich, which she completed with her feature film script “Story of Fear“. During her studies she wrote several short films, three of which she directed. This allowed her to try out a wide variety of narrative styles and work in different teams. Her films were screened at the Hofer Filmtage, the Short Tiger in Cannes, the Sky Blaue Blume Award and many more. Kleinheim was nominated for a Lola at the German Short Film Award 2017.

Because she just can’t seem to get enough, Maya is now studying film directing at the HFF Munich.

© photo: Florian Strandl