Christine Tröstrum was born in Ravensburg in 1972. She studied cultural and theatre studies / cultural communication in Berlin and is consultant for organisational development and change management (among others for the Berlin International Film Festival).

She worked for several film festivals in Germany and France until 2000. From 1998 to 2000 she was project manager at the European Film Centre in Babelsberg, where she was responsible for the CyberCinema pilot project, the first worldwide demonstrator for D-cinema. Amongst others, she was project manager until 2004 of Cartoon Movie, the European Co-Production Market for Animated Feature Films in Babelsberg, as well as head of an international conference series in Berlin-Brandenburg (today known as Media Convention) until 2005.

From 2008-2022 she worked for Berlinale Talents, of which she assumed general management in 2008 and together with Florian Weghorn managed the programme since 2014. She is one of the initiators of the umbrella brand Berlin Film Residencies which is supported by the Berlinale as cooperation partner and several Talents International programmes such as Talents Durban (South Africa), Talents Beirut, Talents Guadalajara (Mexico), Talents Tokyo (Japan) and Talents Sarajevo, initiatives realised through cooperations of Berlinale Talents and other film festivals.