Cast
Wels, Österreich

Biography

Valerie Pachner was born in 1987 in Wels (Austria). In 2004 Pachner won the YOUKI Award for Best Acting Performance in the short film "Drawed Up". Already during her acting studies at the Max Reinhardt Seminar from 2009 to 2013 she read at the Werkstatttage at the Burgtheater, acted in "räuber.schuldengenital" at the Residenztheater as well as in various short films and in Thomas Woschitz' feature film "Bad Luck". In 2013 she completed her acting training at the Max Reinhardt Seminar. In the same year she became a member of the ensemble of the Residenztheater Munich, where she stayed until 2017. In 2014 Pachner made an appearance in "Jack", a feature film by Austrian director Elisabeth Scharang.

In 2015, Pachner played Stefan Zweig's stepdaughter in Maria Schrader's "Vor der Morgenröte - Stefan Zweig in Amerika" ("Stefan Zweig – Farewell to Europe"). In the same year Dieter Berner cast her for the role of Egon Schiele's muse and partner, Wally Neuzil, in "Egon Schiele: Tod und Mädchen"(AT/LU). For her performance Pachner won the Romy Young Talent Award and the Austrian Film Award 2017 as Best Female Actress.

In 2016 she was awarded the Förderpreis der Freunde des Bayerischen Staatsschauspiels and the Bayerischer Kunstförderpreis für Darstellende Kunst. In the same year, Valerie Pachner appeared in front of the camera for the biographical drama "A Hidden Life" (US/DE) by cult director Terrence Malick, as the wife of the Austrian farmer Franz Jägerstätter, who refused military service in the Wehrmacht in 1943 on grounds of conscience. The film did not premiere until 2019 at the Cannes International Film Festival.

She played the leading role in Marie Kreutzer's "Der Boden unter den Füßen" (The Ground Beneath My Feet"), which premiered at the Berlinale in February 2019 and was released in German cinemas in May. For her portrayal of a successful management consultant whose life is thrown off course by her schizophrenic sister, she received awards at the Guadalajara International Film Festival and the Filmkunstfest Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Schwerin. Also in spring 2019, Pachner made an appearance in Edward Berger's sensitive drama "All My Loving".