Marie Kreutzer

Marie Kreutzer (born 25 August 1977 in Graz, Styria, Austria) is an acclaimed Austrian film director and screenwriter whose work is distinguished by a sharp feminist perspective and a willingness to tackle historical and contemporary gender issues. Raised as the daughter of Styrian Green Party politician Ingrid Lechner‑Sonnek, Kreutzer pursued formal training at the Vienna Film Academy, where she studied under Walter Wippersberg and later returned as a lecturer, imparting her craft to a new generation of filmmakers. Her early short‑film The Fatherless (2011) marked the beginning of a prolific career, followed by feature‑length works such as Gruber Is Leaving (2015), We Used to Be Cool (2016), and The Ground Beneath My Feet (2019), each displaying her nuanced storytelling and keen visual style. The breakthrough arrived with Corsage (2022), a meticulously crafted period drama that re‑imagines Empress Elisabeth of Austria as a symbol of female rebellion; collaborating with cinematographer Judith Kaufmann, Kreutzer blended sumptuous period detail with modern feminist themes, earning the film selections at the Berlin International Film Festival, the 70th San Sebastián International Film Festival, Cannes 2022, Toronto 2022, and New York Film Festival 2022. Beyond her artistic achievements, Kreutzer is openly feminist and actively engages in industry discourse, having signed a 2023 letter supporting Israel’s right to exist and condemning the Hamas attacks. Her personal life includes a marriage to production designer Martin Reiter, with whom she has a daughter. The director has also faced controversy: rumors surrounding a Corsage actor led to public debate about accountability in the Austrian film community, and she navigated the fallout following the actor’s 2023 conviction for child pornography, maintaining that she acted on the information available at the time. Despite these challenges, Kreutzer continues to develop new projects, such as the forthcoming “Johnny Maccaroni,” reflecting her commitment to confronting difficult social issues through cinema.