Germany
Production
FeatureLab 360 Participant 2017
By the time of studying film at the Hamburg Media School, Verena Gräfe-Höft worked as a freelance journalist for different radio and tv stations, and completed a traineeship. As an author she realized several foreign reports for various broadcasters. At that time, she also studied "American Literature and Cultural Studies", "Journalism" and "Ethnology" at the University of Hamburg.
With her short films she won many national and international awards. After finishing her studies at the film academy, she founded her own production company JUNAFILM in Hamburg in 2009.
Verena Gräfe-Höft is Alumni Speaker of the major in film at the Hamburg Media School and since 2003 she teaches the seminar "Productionmanagement“ at the HFBK in Wim Wenders’s film program.
Verena Gräfe-Höft is a member of the international EAVE Producer Network and she is an alumni of the European TV Drama Labs. She is Co-Founder of the Dependance WIFT (Woman in Film and Television) in Hamburg.
In the heart of Hamburg-Ottensen Junafilm develops subject matters for cinema and television with filmmakers from all over the world. This is where stories are created with passion that stand for unusual and courageous films. With the first feature film, "Tore tanzt" by Katrin Gebbe Junafilm was represented in Cannes 2013 (Un Certain Regard). The movie won more than 20 national and international awards and has been a worldwide success at over 100 festivals. Other film projects with Katrin Gebbe are under development. In addition to that, Junafilm realized international co-productions with talents such as Ask Hasselbach ("Antboy – Revenge of the Red Fury" / Berlinale 2015), Rasmus Birch ("When Animals Dream" / Cannes 2014) and Asá Hjörnleifsdóttir ("The Swan" / Berlinae Talent Campus). Junafilm is part of the initiative "Hamburg lebt Kino", in which young production companies have joined forces to strengthen the location Hamburg, to give youngsters a voice and to reinforce the network of the entire film industry.