Isabelle Stever was born in Munich, Germany in 1963. She studied mathematics at the Technical University of Berlin before going on to study film at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB). Her graduation film, Erste Ehe (2003), earned recognition with the First Steps Award for Best Feature Film, and her debut feature, Gisela (2005), was invited to Locarno′s Filmmakers of the Present section. She went on to direct Blessed Events (2011) and The Weather Inside (2016), which were invited to major festivals worldwide including Berlin, Toronto, and Busan, while also serving as a jury member for the Berlinale Shorts competition and Kyiv′s Sunny Bunny LGBTQIA+ Film Festival. Made in collaboration with her wife, Ukrainian screenwriter and novelist Anna Melikova, Grand Jeté (2022) drew considerable attention when it screened in the Panorama section at the Berlinale. Their second collaboration and Stever′s latest film, I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming, tells the story of a Ukrainian queer couple searching for their identities amid war, and had its world premiere to critical acclaim in the International Competition at the 2026 Locarno Film Festival.