Caroline Link

Caroline Link is the daughter of Jürgen and Ilse Link. From 1986 to 1990 she studied at the University of Television and Film Munich (HFF), and then worked as an assistant director and script writer.

Link's early work includes the short film Bunte Blumen, from 1988. She was a co-director on the documentary film Das Glück zum Anfassen (1989). For Bavaria Film, she wrote two screenplays to the detective series Der Fahnder (The Investigators).

Caroline Link grew up in a small town outside of Frankfurt, Germany in 1968. Despite her family giving her a strong moral compass, they were a "non intellectual and non artistic family." Link first became interested in pursuing filmmaking after being a nanny in America, when she came back to Germany she was working on set as an extra and engaged with a camera man. She thought it would be an interesting profession, she recognized that being a camera women was going to be hard but after studying what they did on set as an extra she was able to get herself an internship in the film industry. Link enjoyed working in the film industry but wanted the ability to create and express her politics.{{Citation|last=Goethe-Institut Toronto|title=Goethe Film Talk: Caroline Link|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSkQCdMaxzM |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211217/ZSkQCdMaxzM |archive-date=17 December 2021 |url-status=live|access-date=10 December 2018}}{{cbignore}}{{Cite web|url=https://womenandhollywood.com/tiff-women-directors-meet-caroline-link/|title=TIFF Women Directors: Meet Caroline Link|website=womenandhollywood.com|language=en-US|access-date=10 December 2018}}

Link's first feature film, Jenseits der Stille (Beyond Silence, 1996) was nominated for the Academy Award as Best Foreign Language Film,{{Cite web|url=http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1998 |title=The 70th Academy Awards (1998) Nominees and Winners |access-date=13 October 2015 |work=oscars.org}} and attracted attention for its portrayal of a family with deaf parents.{{cite news | author=Dinitia Smith | title= Families Joined or Divided by Silence; Film Shed Light on Emotional Issues of the Deaf | url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F00E7D7133AF932A25755C0A96E958260 | work=The New York Times | date=11 June 1998 | access-date=22 January 2008}} Her second feature film was Annaluise and Anton (1999), based on a novel by Erich Kästner. Her third feature film, Nirgendwo in Afrika (Nowhere in Africa, 2001), adapted by Link from the autobiographical novel by Stefanie Zweig and shot on location in Kenya,{{cite news |author=Stefanie Zweig | title=Strangers in a Strange Land |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2003/mar/21/artsfeatures |work=The Guardian | date=23 February 2003 | access-date=22 January 2008}} received the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film as well winning the German Film Award (Deutscher Filmpreis) in five categories, including Best Fiction Film.

Beyond Silence was Link's first break through, was nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and brought her global recognition. Beyond Silence illustrates the struggles of the main character Lara, a child of deaf adults (CODA), among communicating with her deaf parents Martin and Kai. Link uses the theme of silence in her story as an allegory for censorship, generational trauma and oppression in the heart of Germany society. " This isn’t really a movie about deafness, Beyond Silence. It’s about deafness on the surface, of course, but the emotional substance is about communication in a family. I always try to speak about a universal emotion that most viewers will know and understand. So with Beyond Silence, I knew I wanted to make a movie about a father and a daughter – a daughter who loves her father very much but who feels drawn to a completely different world. This I knew from my own life, and this is what I wanted to write about before I knew I’d make a movie about a deaf family."{{Cite web|url=http://filmint.nu/?p=10619|title=Diva Directors Around the Globe: Spotlight on Caroline Link|website=Film International|date=17 January 2014|language=en-US|access-date=10 December 2018}}

“Women tend to worry a lot about their perception. We want to be nice people. But it’s not always possible to be calm, sweet and understanding when you are in a leading position or if you really try to get something that you need for your creative idea. I had to learn, that it is ok for a woman to WANT something, to be the boss and to sometimes even be aggressive”.

Link lives with her partner, the film director Dominik Graf, and their daughter, who was born in 2002.

• {{cite book | last1=Glasenapp | first1=Jörn | last2=Koebner | first2=Thomas | last3=Krützen | first3=Michaela | last4=Liptay | first4=Fabienne | last5=Wende | first5=Johannes | author6=edition text + kritik | title=Caroline Link | publication-place=München | date=2016 | isbn=978-3-86916-482-3 | oclc=934149576}}

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Category:1964 births

Category:Film people from Hesse

Category:People from Bad Nauheim

Category:Living people

Category:University of Television and Film Munich alumni

Category:German women film directors

Category:Directors of Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award winners

Category:Best Director German Film Award winners

Category:Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany