Maria Köpf studied American Philology as well as Film- and Drama in Berlin and New York. Since the end of the 1980s she has been involved in the production and distribution of features.
From 1995 to May 2006 she worked with X Films Creative Pool, since 2000 as one of the managing directors.

Since 1997 she worked with Tom Tykwer, first as line-producer (“Wintersleepers”, “Run Lola Run”) and later as his producer (“The Princess & the Warrior”, “Heaven” and short “True”).
Maria Köpf also produced the award-winning debut feature by Hendrik Handloegten “Paul is Dead” and his theatrical  feature “Learning to Lie” (based on the novel by Frank Goosen) as well as Connie Walther’s Eastern German coming-of-age film “Never Mind the Wall” which was nominated for the German Lola in 2002.

These films were followed by Ayse Polat’s “En Garde” awarded the Silver Leopard in Locarno as well as “Underexposure” by Oday Rasheed (first German-Iraqi Coproduction) and Christiane Voss’ and Katja Dringenberg’s film-essay on love “Ich Dich auch”. She also co-produced Sebastian Schipper’s “A Friend of Mine” with Tom Tykwer from 2005 to 2006.
The award-winning  adaptation of Holly-Jane Rahlens “Max Minsky and I” by Anna Justice premiered in 2007.

May 2006 Maria Köpf established her company “day-for-night”. The co-operation with Zentropa started in February 2007, with her acting as managing director for Zentropa’s subsidiary in Berlin since May 2007.