Petra Biondina Volpe

Petra Volpe, a Swiss-Italian filmmaker with a bit of a rebellious streak, studied at the Film Academy Konrad Wolf over in Potsdam Babelsberg. She’s not some one-hit wonder, either—her movie "The Divine Order" exploded onto the scene, snagged Switzerland’s official entry for the 90th Academy Awards, and made a splash at Tribeca. People couldn’t get enough of it. Not only did it walk away with the Nora Ephron Prize, but it also scooped up Best Actress in an International Film and the Audience Award. Back home, it was a proper box office smash, racking up seven Swiss Film Award nominations and bagging three of them. Volpe’s first feature, "Dreamland," didn’t exactly sneak by unnoticed either—it pulled in four nominations at the Swiss Film Awards. She’s also the creative mind behind the script for "Heidi" (2015), which, believe it or not, is Switzerland’s top-grossing film around the world. That’s not all. Volpe flexed her writing muscles with "Labyrinth of Peace," a mini-series that critics loved and which got international play. And then there’s "The Golden Years"—she penned it, Barbara Kulcsar directed, and it ended up the year’s biggest hit at the Swiss box office, now headed for screens abroad. These days, Petra splits her time between New York and Berlin—probably plotting her next move, because slowing down isn’t really her thing.