Early career –1999

After studying philosophy and German philology at Stuttgart University as well as at Rome University Franziska Buch graduates with an M.A. In 1986 she moved on to the University of Television and Film Munich.^[3] She started with the short feature film Die Ordnung der Dinge (The order of things), for which she won the European Short Film Award in Berlin 1987. One year after Buch directed a 45-minute feature film Tod eines Idioten (Death of a fool) that was co-produced with the Bavarian Television. Her graduation film Die ungewisse Lage des Paradieses (The uncertain situation of paradise) is a children's film that shows a girl escaping from reality into a bizarre dreamworld. It was shown in cinemas in 1993 and is to be seen as her debut feature film.

Since 1991, Buch has worked as a freelance author and director. From 1993–1994, Buch was a fellowship-holder at the Screenplay Workshop Munich. She wrote several screenplays for the TV crime series O.K. (1993/1994, Bavaria Film) and Faust (1994/1995, ZDF). At the same time, she completed the 45-minute TV film essay on the life and work of Else Lasker-Schueler, Mein Herz – Niemandem (1994).^[3]

1999–2004

Finally she manages the breakthrough with Verschwinde von hier (Disappear out of here) in 1999.^[2] The film is about a young man caring affectionately about his partner's son because he is neglected by his mother. The film won the Max-Ophuels Prize in the category "Best Movie" as well as the German Film Award for the best screenplay in 2000. In her further children's and family's movies she continues focussing on the issue of family that is often described from the children's perspectives: The literature filmings of Erich Kästner's Emil and the Detectives (2001) and The Flying Classroom [de] (2002) as well as the comedy Unsere Mutter ist halt anders (2003) (Our Mother is just different) were published. Her commercially most successful movie so far Bibi Blocksberg and the Secret of the Blue Owls [de] (2004) counts 1,3 million spectators and was awarded as the Best film at Chicago International Children's Film Festival.

2004-today

In spite of her success with cinema feature films, Franziska Buch shifts her focus to television in the following years. She directs high-quality children, youth and family films such as Heimliche Liebe – Der Schüler und die Postbotin (2005) (Secret Love: The Schoolboy and the Mailwoman) about a boy that falls in love with an older woman while he is on holiday and Patchwork [de] (2008) about two single parents and their attempt to found a family with their kids. Buch's next cinema feature Here Comes Lola! [de] was published in 2010. Similarly to her debut film Die ungewisse Lage des Paradieses (1992) the story is about a girl handling with her problems and fears by escaping into a fantasy world.

This is followed by Adieu Paris (2012), a film showing rather adult topics and problems. Several completely different people meet in the metropolis Paris and start to structure their lives in a new way.^[2]