Biography
Katrin Milhahn was born in Munich in 1975. She trained at the Berlin School of Journalism and studied dramaturgy and screenwriting at the Babelsberg Film University 'Konrad Wolf' (now: Filmuniversität Babelsberg) from 2000 to 2006. There she met the director André Hörmann, with whom she repeatedly collaborated as a writer over the years. Their joint trailer "Blumen für den Freund" (2002) was screened at the 2006 Cannes Advertising Film Festival and was nominated for a First Steps Award and the VDW Award. Together with fellow student Sören Senn, she wrote the screenplay for Senn's award-winning graduation film, the love triangle "KussKuss" (2003-2005); Milhahn received the HFF President's Award for the screenplay. Manuela Stacke's feature-length graduation film "Mondscheinkinder" ("Children of the Moon", 2006), written by Milhahn, about the special sibling relationship of a six-year-old to his 12-year-old sister, also won awards at international festivals; Milhahn won the Screenplay Award at the Skip City International D-Cinema Festival in Japan and the Screenplay Award at the Goldener Spatz Festival in Erfurt, as well as the Children's Jury Award (together with Stacke).
After graduating from the HFF in 2006, Katrin Milhahn began working as a freelance screenwriter for cinema and television. Among others, she collaborated on the screenplay for Nicole Weegmann's family drama "Solange du schliefst" (2009, TV). In 2010, she was a fellow at Villa Aurora in Los Angeles together with André Hörmann; there, the two worked on a project about screenwriters in Hollywood, which, however, was not realized.
Milhahn also wrote the comedies "Polish Easter" (2011), "Liebeskuss am Bosporus" (2011, TV) and "Schlaflos in Istanbul" ("Sweet like Baklava", 2012, TV). Furthermore, she was part of the trio of authors of Ann-Kristin Reyels' relationship story "Formentera" (2012) and co-wrote the children's film "Ente gut! Mädchen allein zu Haus" ("Fortune Favors the Brave: Girls Home Alone") for which she was nominated for the German Screenplay Award together with Antonia Rothe-Liermann. With Rothe-Liermann, she also wrote "Hanni & Nanni: Mehr als beste Freunde" (2017) and the coming-of-age drama "Wir haben nur gespielt" ("We Were Just Playing", 2018, TV, directed by Ann-Kristin Reyels); the two were also part of the five-person writing team for the children's film "Liliane Susewind – Ein tierisches Abenteuer" (DE/FR/BE 2018).
Together with André Hörmann, Katrin Milhahn wrote and directed the feature film "Nachtwald" (2021), which was her directorial debut. The adventure story is about two boys who go in search of a mysterious cave in the Swabian mountains. "Nachtwald" was awarded Best Youth Film at the Cinekid Film Festival (Amsterdam), received the European Children's Film Association ECFA Award at the Schlingel Kinderfilmfestival (Chemnitz) and the Best Film Award at the Giffoni Film Festival (Italy) as well as the Clear Channel Award for Creativity and Innovation. The theatrical release was in November 2022.