Sandra Buchta is a Munich-based screenwriter and story consultant. She writes and develops feature films, series and documentaries – and she loves to adapt novels.

After an M.A. in French and American literature, she graduated in Film Criticism at the Munich film school, HFF. In 2005, Sandra joined the national agency ‘German Films’ where she promoted German films at international film festivals with a focus on Eastern Europe. In 2009, she started her own business as a story consultant and worked on numerous award-winning independent short films and documentaries.

From 2012-2018, Sandra curated the international script development program RACCONTI Script Lab for the Italian film fund IDM with a special focus on writers’ rooms and cross-cultural collaboration. In this Lab, she had the honour to learn from mentors such as UK screenwriter Emma Frost and US writer J.V. Hart – and, of course, from the many talented writers she met through this program.

In 2016, Sandra turned to writing herself and received script funding from the Polish Film Institute for her first feature film screenplay: THE LECTURE (formerly WINTER OF THE CROW) is a thriller Sandra co-wrote with director Kasia Adamik, based on a short story by nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk. The script was selected for the renowned writers’ program SCRIPTEAST and Sandra received the Special Mention of the Krzysztof Kieslowski ScripTeast Award during the Cannes film festival, in 2018. The project is now in the last stages of financing as a European coproduction (PL/LUX/GB/DE) – with Agnieszka Holland on board as executive producer – and received significant production funding from the Luxemburg film fund in 2022.

Sandra’s second feature film screenplay THE CASE OF E.E. another literary adaption by an Olga Tokarczuk novel, was also selected for the SCRIPTEAST program. Together with her co-writers, Maja Costa and Pawel Grajnert Sandra pitched the project at last year’s Scripteast presentation during the Cannes film festival. The project is now in development as a German-Polish co-production (producer: Lieblingsfilm, Munich).

From 2019 up until recently, Sandra has also been working as a story consultant and developing feature films and TV series with writers/directors for the Berlin-based production company Bon Voyage Films.

One of the key aspects of Sandra’s work is her approach to develop stories in teams. As a lecturer at the documentary department of the Munich film school, she guides teams of writers/directors in their story development process. She has also designed an intercultural script development program, the Racconti Script Lab, for the Italian film fund IDM. With Racconti, Sandra has gained experience in the writers‘ room as a challenging and rewarding form of creative collaboration.

As a story consultant Sandra often refers to the experiences she gained through her close collaboration with international festival programmers. Her goal is to help filmmakers to develop unique stories that grip audiences and can cross borders as well as genres.