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Sabine Derflinger was born in 1963 in Wels, Austria, and grew up in Vöcklabruck. In the mid-1980s, she started working as an assistant director and producer on feature films and documentaries. From 1991 to 1996 she studied screenwriting and dramaturgy at the Vienna Film Academy. During this time she realized two documentary feature films together with Bernhard Pötscher: "Geraubte Kindheit" (AT 1994), about a residential community for neglected, maltreated and abused children, was awarded the Hans Cermak Prize; "Achtung Staatsgrenze" (AT 1996), about deportation prisoners in Austria, the efforts of refugee counselors and the conflicts of the officials involved, received the Interkulturpreis Oberösterreich.
After receiving her diploma, Sabine Derflinger began working as a freelance screenwriter and director for feature films and documentaries. For the documentary "The Rounder Girls" (AT 1999), about the Austrian soul-jazz-pop-vocal trio of the same name, she received the Grünpreis Kultur. In 2000 she was a founding member of dok.at., the Interest Group of Austrian Documentary Filmmakers. Her feature film "Vollgas" ("Step On It", AT/DE 2002), about a single mother caught between lust for life and everyday duties, was awarded the Förderpreis Langfilm at the Max Ophüls Festival.
In 2003 Derflinger received the Culture Award of the Province of Upper Austria and the Austrian Promotion Award for Film Art for her work. Her television drama "Kleine Schwester" (DE 2004), a psychodrama about a disciplined female federal border guard whose charismatic younger half-sister belongs to a group of right-wing skinhead musicians and suspected smugglers, was also a success. The film received very positive reviews and won the ver.di Television Award as well as the VFF TV-Movie Award for Best Television Production at the Munich Film Festival.
After the documentaries "Schnelles Geld" (2005) and "Fremde Kinder – In den Straßen von Delhi" (2006), she realized the feature film "42plus" (AT 2007), about the midlife crisis of a woman in her early 40s, which received ambivalent reviews.
In 2010 she founded the production company Derflinger Film and made the feature film "Tag und Nacht" ("Day and Night", AT 2010), about two young women who initially see prostitution as a lucrative adventure, but are then caught up by the grim reality. Her documentary "Hot Spot" (AT 2011) was about a restaurant whose operator specifically hires people who usually fall through the cracks in order to give them a perspective.
In the following years Derflinger realized not least numerous episodes of several TV series. Among them, several episodes of "Paul Kemp - Alles kein Problem" (AT 2013) and for the long running "Tatort" series (2012, 2014). For the much-discussed "Tatort" episode "Angezählt" (AT 2014), about slum prostitution in Vienna, she received a Grimme Award. Between 2015 and 2018, Derflinger directed 15 episodes of the Austrian social series "Vorstadtweiber," for which she received the German Metropolis directing award for the sixth episode of the 2nd season (2016). In the following years, she directed episodes of the German crime series "Die Füchsin" (2018-2019) and "Letzte Spur Berlin" (2019-2020).
In addition, Derflinger made the feature film "Anna Fucking Molnar" (2017), about an actress (Nina Proll) who has to deal with private as well as professional setbacks. In 2018, she made her theater debut in St. Pölten with a production of Nestroy's "Der Zerrissene."
Sabine Derflinger's feature documentary "Die Dohnal" ("Johanna Dohnal - Visionary of Feminism", AT 2019), about the feminist and Austrian Minister for Women's Affairs Johanna Dohnal, premiered at the Viennale 2019 and won Best Documentary at the Diagonale Film Festival in Graz 2020 as well as the Austrian Film Award 2021. Following on from this, Derflinger realized a cinematic portrait of the pioneering German feminist and publicist Alice Schwarzer, which was released in cinemas in 2022 under the title "Alice Schwarzer".