Anja Marquardt is a German film director who won two major international film awards for her first feature film She's Lost Control. Marquardt was previously known for her screen-writing and directing of critically acclaimed short films. Her first full-length movie explored the emotional journey of a young female student who works as a sexual surrogate and falls in love with an unusually recalcitrant client. Certain aspects of Marquardt’s work have been contrasted to Ben Lewin's similarly themed feature film The Sessions that uses a diametrically opposite approach to the topic. Marquardt stated that she intended "not to write a love story, but an anti-love story."