Emily Atef is a French-Iranian director born in Berlin. At the age of seven, she moved with her family to Los Angeles. At the age of thirteen, she moved to the Jura region of France, where her mother grew up, before being seduced by the theatre in London. She finally moved to Germany to study directing at the German Film Academy in Berlin (DFFB).
Her first feature film, MOLLY'S WAY, like her next two, was co-written with Esther Bernstorff and won the Best Screenplay Award at the Munich Film Festival in 2005 and the Grand Jury Prize at the Mar del Plata Film Festival.
In 2008, his second feature film, THE STRANGER IN ME, about a young mother suffering from postnatal depression, had its world premiere at the ‘Critics' Week’ in Cannes. The film won several awards. She was offered a grant from the Cannes Film Festival's Cinéfondation to write KILL ME, a road movie she directed between Germany and France in 2011.
In 2018, Emily Atef wrote and directed the feature film 3 DAYS QUIBERON. It depicts three emotional days during which Romy Schneider gave her last German interview to STERN magazine. 3 DAYS QUIBERON was in competition at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival and won 7 Lolas at the 2018 German Academy Awards, including Best Film and Best Director.
In 2021 Emily shoots her fifth feature film, which she had been imagining for over 10 years: MORE THAN EVER. The film stars Vicky Krieps, Gaspard Ulliel and Björn Floberg. It is made between France, Luxembourg and the far north of Norway and is an ode to life and love. MORE THAN EVER premieres at the 75th Cannes Film Festival in the section ‘Un Certain Regard’. A few months she shot 2 episodes of the last season of KILLING EVE. In 2022 Emily shot her new and sixth feature film and her first novel adaptation by Daniela Krien: SOMEDAY WE WILL TELL EACH OTHER EVERYTHING which will have its premier in the competition of the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival. Emily is now developing her new feature film MERCY, a powerful friendship story set in Nairobi, Kenya in the late 90’s. She is hoping to shoot the film in the summer of 2024.