Nora Fingscheidt

Nora Fingscheidt, born 17 February 1983 in Braunschweig, Germany, is a celebrated German director and screenwriter whose career has rapidly ascended from the independent short‑film circuit to international acclaim. She spent her formative years alternating between schools in Braunschweig and Argentina, an experience that later informed the transnational perspective of her work. In 2008 she enrolled at the Film Academy Baden‑Württemberg, where she studied scenic directing until 2017, graduating with a documentary titled Without This World that explored the lives of Argentine Mennonites. Even before graduation, her short film Synkope earned an invitation to the prestigious Max Ophüls Prize competition, a nomination for the German Short Film Prize in 2011, and an honorable mention at the Dresden Film Festival in 2012. Subsequent shorts such as Zwischen den Zeilen (2011), Brüderlein (2013) and Die Lizenz (2016) continued to secure her presence at the Max Ophüls festival, culminating in a 2017 prize win for the aforementioned documentary. Fingscheidt's breakthrough arrived with her first feature, System Crasher, which premiered in the competition of the 69th Berlin International Film Festival in 2019. The film’s stark portrayal of a traumatised adolescent earned her the Alfred Bauer Prize and the Reader’s Jury Prize of the Berliner Morgenpost, and it later garnered eight German Film Awards in 2020, including best picture, best screenplay and best director. System Crasher was Germany’s submission for the Best International Feature Film category at the 2020 Academy Awards, underscoring her status as a leading contemporary filmmaker. Following this success, she directed the English‑language thriller The Unforgivable starring Sandra Bullock, adapting the 2009 series Unforgiven for a global audience. Residing in Hamburg with her family, Fingscheidt balances a demanding career with motherhood, raising a son while continuing to develop projects that challenge conventional narratives and expand the reach of German cinema.