Q&A with Local Talent Magdalena Mitterhofer

Reading time
Get to know our local talents: Magdalena Mitterhofer, director
Take

What are you currently working on?


Magdalena Mitterhofer

Grigia, a script development based on a novella by Robert Musil.

Take

What was your most recent project?


Magdalena Mitterhofer

The 24-minute short film Corte (2024), a chamber drama, shot in the Villaggio Eni in the Cadore region (funded by the IDM Film Commission, Medienboard BB, the Office for Film and Media of South Tyrol/Südtirol; produced by Mediaart Productions and Schuldenberg Films).

And the performances “Confessional” (Bolzano Danza, 25 July 2024) and “Gaia’s Corner” (with Julia Stoschek, DC Open, 28 August 2024).

Take

Which of your projects to date are you particularly proud of?


Magdalena Mitterhofer

I don’t know about proud, but I was very happy to see the Corte project realised. I manage a nomadic performance web series together with Shade Théret, lament.tv—helping other artists realise their projects makes me content.

Take

How did you first get into the film industry? 

Magdalena Mitterhofer

A film producer from South Tyrol who lived in Berlin helped me get a foot in the door. I translated and transcribed his documentary. After that, I acted in a few student films, but most of them were never published, of course.

Take

Whom would you love to work/shoot with?


Magdalena Mitterhofer

There are several actors whom I would love to work with—such as Maziar Firouzi, a wonderful actor from Palermo, or Kiko Mizuhara, a Japanese actress who starred in Toshiaki Toyoda’s I’m Flash. Lucretia Martel is someone I would like to assist.

Take

A film/series must definitely be made about …


Magdalena Mitterhofer

I’m with Peter Schorn here: Francesca Melandri’s Eva Sleeps definitely deserves a film adaptation. Other than that, someone should make a thriller about semi-legal tactics on the housing market. About speculation and gentrification. About someone like René Benko.

Take

Who or what inspires you?


Magdalena Mitterhofer

Sean Price Williams, his new film, the sweet east. And Traudi, my producer.

Take

The South Tyrolean film scene is … 


Magdalena Mitterhofer

… still new to me, I’m just getting to know it. But my impression is that there are many interesting people around. And I am impressed by the opportunities on offer.

Take

Your dream location is … 


Magdalena Mitterhofer

Mount Etna, the volcano, or a shopping mall in Tokyo.

Take

What’s your favourite film?


Magdalena Mitterhofer

Can’t say. Perhaps a film by Shōhei Imamura.

Take

What’s your favourite series?


Magdalena Mitterhofer

Atlanta. 

Take

What film shaped your childhood?


Magdalena Mitterhofer

Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking.

Take

When did you last cry in the cinema?


Magdalena Mitterhofer

Dune 2.

Take

What film would you love to watch for the first time again?


Magdalena Mitterhofer

by Federico Fellini.

Take

Cinema or streaming?


Magdalena Mitterhofer

Cinema.

Take

Protagonist or antagonist?


Magdalena Mitterhofer

Antagonist.

Director and artist Magdalena Mitterhofer lives in Berlin, and her creativity feels at home anywhere: theatre, film, drawing … She often collaborates with others, usually blending several forms of art. After graduating from her master class with Hito Steyerl at the Berlin University of the Arts, Magdalena Mitterhofer studied at Tama University in Tokyo and has since then participated in international exhibitions and festivals with performances such as “Rapport” (Deutsche Oper Berlin), “Rude No. 1” (Kunstverein München), “Hellcat” (Rakete Festival TQ Wien and KW Institute for Contemporary Art), or “Merch. Bozze su un bottegaio” (Motto Berlin Splendid). In 2021, she realised her first short film project, All Tomorrow’s Castings, together with Shade Théret. Théret is also her co-founder of lament.tv, a Berlin-based performance series. Mitterhofer’s debut film Corte premieres in 2024. In the same year, she contributed to the “RENAISSANCE” exhibition at the Museion in Bolzano/Bozen.

Magdalena Mitterhofer received the President’s Fine Arts Award given to outstanding master class students at the Berlin University of the Arts (Berlin 2019), the Live Works Award Centrale Fies (2019), and was awarded an international scholarship in Venice by the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media for 2025.

Foto Tiberio Sorvillo
Published on 30.08.2024

In detail