Martina Sakova

Martina Sakova is a German-Slovak author, director and creative producer. After graduating from the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, she received a scholarship from the German Academic (...) Exchange Programme and studied film directing as a guest student at the Babelsberg Film University and experimental media at the University of the Arts in Berlin. In 2008, she established the film production and 3D animation studio Projector23 in Berlin and in 2021 WHAT IF Films in Bratislava. Her films include the feature-length documentary “Little Hanoi”, a German-Slovak-Czech co-production with HBO Europe (festivals: Int. Vietnamese Film Festival LA USA/ Int. Film Festival Duhok Iraq/ Hanoi Int Film Festival HANIFF Vietnam) or the documentary “Neighbours” for Czech and Slovak television. She also worked on films as co-producer for example “Operation Neptune'' by Czech director A.Babanova or the documentary “Child Boxers” by Ghanaian director M.Zimrani, which was supported by the IDFA Bertha Fund and the Sundance Film Fund. For her collaboration on the film “Haushaltshilfe” by German director A.Hoffmann (premiere: Berlinale Perspektive German Cinema) she received the New Europe Visegrad Prix. The feature film “My World Upside Down” by Slovak director D.Rihak, currently in development, won the HAVC Development Award at Connecting Cottbus 2023. Her feature film "Summer Rebels'', which she also directed, was released in cinemas in Germany, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Austria. It was broadcast on RTVS (SK), NPO (NLD), NETFLIX (CZ/SK), Amazon and others, and screened in competition at over 30 film festivals worldwide. The film was pre-selected for the German Film Award and won the German Film Critics' Award 2021 in the Children's Film category. Her new feature film project LOVEBOTS was pre-nominated for the German Script Award 2024.