Mascha Schilinski

Schilinski was born in West Berlin to a German filmmaker mother and a French construction worker father.^[2][3][4] She was a child actor in her youth.^[5] After dropping out of high school, she worked as a magician in a traveling circus.^[6][7][8] She graduated from the screenwriting program at the Filmschule Hamburg Berlin [de] in 2008, and later studied directing at the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg.^[2][9]

Schilinski began her career as a casting director and freelance writer.^[6][8][10] Her first feature film, Dark Blue Girl [de], premiered at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival and was nominated for the GWFF Best First Feature Award.^[11][12]

Her second feature film, Sound of Falling, was screened in competition at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Jury Prize;^[13][14] the film marked only the second time a German production won the Cannes Jury Prize, after Konrad Wolf's Stars in 1959.^[8] The film was later selected as the German entry for Best International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards, though it was not nominated.^[15][16][17]

Schilinski signed with Creative Artists Agency and Ithaka Media in December 2025.^[18]

Schilinski's husband, Fabian Gamper, is a cinematographer.^[7][8] They have one child.^[4][19]