AustLit

Christina Andreef was born in Kawerau, New Zealand to a Bulgarian father and a Pakeha-New Zealander mother. After completing a Diploma of Journalism at the Wellington Polytechnic, NZ in 1974, she enrolled and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Film and Media at the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland in 1982. In 1988, she finished her PhD in Film Theory at Macquarie University in Sydney.

Andreef has worked as a Director's Assistant to Jane Campion on Sweetie, An Angel At My Table, and The Piano; and to Alison Maclean on Crush. In 1992 she wrote and directed a short film Excursion to the Bridge of Friendship, which was an official selection at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival, won first prize (short narrative) at the 1994 San Francisco Film Festival, and was a finalist at the Ethnic Affairs Commission Awards short film competitiion at the 1993 Sydney Film Festival, and a finalist at the 1994 ATOM Awards. The film was screened as part of the Oz Shorts collection of film shown in capital city cinemas around Australia and on ABC TV on Australia Day, 1994. This was followed by two other acclaimed short films, The Gap (1994) and Shooting the Breeze (1996).

In 1999 Andreef co-produced, directed and wrote the screenplay for the Australian feature film Soft Fruit, a comedy drama of the bonds affecting an ordinary family at a turning point. In early 2002 the Australian Film Commission provided her with draft funding for a feature film screenplay titled Shiver. Andreef is distinguished as a visual storyteller with original sensibilities.