German-Language Authors
List activity
33 views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
16 people
- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Ralf Husmann was born on 24 September 1964 in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany. He is a writer and producer, known for Dr. Psycho - Die Bösen, die Bullen, meine Frau und ich (2007), Stromberg (2004) and Frau Jordan stellt gleich (2019).Headwriter at Brainpool, and producer for comedy formats and shows. Wrote Stromberg (based on Ricky Gervais' "The Office")- Writer
- Editor
- Director
Rolf Basedow was born in 1947 in Hamburg, Germany. He is a writer and editor, known for In the Face of Crime (2010), Police Call 110 (1971) and Am I Beautiful? (1998).Im Angesicht des Verbrechens // Hotte im Paradies- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Maren Ade was born in Karlsruhe on 12 December 1976 to a couple of teachers.She studied cinema at Munich's Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film. As of 2001 she co-founded, together with Janine Jackowski, a fellow graduate from HFF, the "Komplizen" film company. It is through Komplizen that Maren would later co-produce, among others, "Arabian Nights", Miguel Gomes' masterpiece. After two shorts in 2000 and 2001 made under the auspices of her film school, she co-produced, wrote and and directed Der Wald vor lauter Bäumen (2003), her first feature. A grueling drama about the difficult beginnings of a new teacher, the movie impressed both audiences and critics. Incidentally, it is of interest to specify that its school scenes were entirely shot within the walls of the educational institution where her mother was teaching at the time. This promising effort was followed six years later by Everyone Else (2009), which although taking place in a totally different setting (the Sardinian seaside in the glory of Summer) also concerns characters unsure of themselves. A taut drama as well, it revolves around two holiday making newly married couples and describes in a Roman Polanski-like manner the wicked relationships they share. But her greatest success came in 2015 and 2016 with Toni Erdmann (2016), an offbeat comedy with a philosophical approach, which enthused the festival-goers at Cannes, allegedly making them "roar with laughter", and later making unexpected profit in art houses throughout the world. And it is true that a father playing dirty tricks on his daughter (meant to make her realize she is wasting her life) is no ordinary entertainment. As a matter of fact, after only three full-length movies to her credit, Maren Ade has become a name that counts in today's German cinema.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Valeska Grisebach was born on 4 January 1968 in Bremen, West Germany [now Germany]. She is a director and writer, known for Western (2017), Sehnsucht (2006) and Be My Star (2001).Western- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Born in Wels in 1961, grew up in Vienna. Started writing and directing while still in school. His first film was aired on television in 1978. In 1980 he started studying screenwriting and directing at the Vienna Film Academy. Two films completed during his studies received international prizes and were screened at the Stadtkino, an arthouse cinema in Vienna. Spielmann graduated in 1987. Soon afterwards, he wrote and directed four cinema and made-for-TV films in succession.
In 1999, after several years of silence, his next feature film Die Fremde was Austria's nomination for the Foreign Language Oscar. This was followed by 'Spiel im Morgengrauen', a made-for-TV movie, and in 2004 the feature Antares.
Antares was shown internationally at more than 30 festivals, at arthouse theaters in many countries including France, the USA, and Germany. It was nominated by Austria to compete for the Foreign Language Oscar. Its explicit sex scenes spark heated debate among Academy members.
Since 2005 Spielmann has also written and directed for the stage.
In 2006 he was awarded the Upper Austrian State Prize for Culture in the category of film. The same year he founded the production company Spielmannfilm.Antares // Revanche- Writer
- Director
- Actor
A true master of his craft, Michael Haneke is one of the greatest film artists working today and one who challenges his viewers each year and work goes by, with films that reflect real portions of life in realistic, disturbing and unforgettable ways. One of the most genuine filmmakers of the world cinema, Haneke wrote and directed films in several languages: French, German and English, working with a great variety of actors, such as Juliette Binoche, Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Toby Jones, Ülrich Muhe, Arno Frisch and the list goes on.
This grand figure from Austrian cinema was born in Germany on 23 March 1942, from a German father and an Austrian mother, with both parents being from the artistic world working as actors, a career that Michael also tried but without much success. At the University of Vienna he studied drama, philosophy and psychology, and after graduation he went on to become a film critic and TV editor. His career behind camera started with After Liverpool (1974), which he wrote and directed. He went on to direct five more TV films and two episodes from the miniseries "Lemminge" (1979)_.
The years spent on television works prompted him to finally direct his first cinema feature, during his early 40's, which is somewhat unusual for film directors. But it was worth waiting. In The Seventh Continent (1989), Haneke establishes the foundation of what his future cinema would be about: a cinema that doesn't provides answers but one that dares to throw more and more questions, a cinema that reflects and analyses the human condition in its darkest and unexpected ways outside of any Hollywood formula. Films that exist to confront audiences and not comfort them. In it, Haneke deals with the duality of social values vs. internal values while exposing an apparent perfect family that runs into physical and material disintegration for reasons unknown. It was the first time a film of his was sent to the Cannes Film Festival (out of competition lineup) but he managed to cause some commotion in the audience with polemic scenes that were meant to extract all possible reactions from the crowd.
His next ventures at the decade's turn was in dealing with disturbed youth and the alienation they have in separating reality from fiction, trying to intersect both to drastic results. In Benny's Video (1992), it's the disturbing story of a teen boy who experiences killing for the first time capturing the murder on tape, impressed by the power of detachment that films and videos can cause to people; and later on the highly controversial Funny Games (1997), where two teens hold a family hostage to play sadistic games just for their own sick amusement. The film cemented Haneke's name as one of the greatest authors of his generation but sparkled a great debate with its themes of violence, sadism and the influence those things have in audiences. At the 1997's Cannes Film Festival, it was the film that had the most walk-out's by the audience. In between both films, he released 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance (1994) and Kafka's The Castle (1997), the latter being one of the rare times when Haneke developed an adapted work.
In the 2000's, he strongly continued in producing more outstanding works prone to debate and reflection in what would become his most prolific decade with the following films: Code Unknown (2000), The Piano Teacher (2001), Time of the Wolf (2003), Caché (2005), an American remake shot-by shot of Funny Games (2007) and The White Ribbon (2009). His study about romance versus masochism in The Piano Teacher (2001) was an intense work, with powerful performances by Isabelle Huppert and Benoit Magimel, that the Cannes jury in the year were so impressed that Haneke managed to actually reverse their award rules where it was decided that film entries at the festival couldn't win more than one main award (the two lead actors won awards and Haneke got the Grand Prize of the Jury, just lost the Palme d'Or). With The White Ribbon (2009), an enigmatic black-and-white masterpiece following the inception of Nazism in this pre WWI and WWII story focusing on repressed children living in this small village where strange events happen all the time and without any possible reasoning, Haneke conquered the world and audiences with an artistic and daring work that won his first Palme d'Or a Golden Globe as Best Foreign Language Film and received an Oscar nomination for the same category plus the cinematography work of Christian Berger.
2012 was the year that marked his supremacy in the film world with the release of the bold and beautiful Amour (2012), a love story with powerful real drama and one where Haneke removed most of his usual dark characteristics to present more quiet and calm elements without losing input in creating controversy. The touching story of George and Anne provided one the greatest moments of that year and earned Haneke his second and consecutive Palme d'Or at Cannes and his first Oscar nominations for Best Direction and Best Original Screenplay - and it was one of the several nominees for Best Picture Oscar, winning as Best Foreign Language Film.
After abandoning a flash-mob film project, he returned to the screen with Happy End (2017), a film dealing with the refugee crisis in Europe and again he debuted his film at Cannes, receiving mildly positive reviews.
Besides his film work, Haneke also directs theatre productions, from drama to opera, from Così fan tutte to Don Giovanni.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Jan Henrik Stahlberg was born on 30 December 1970 in Neuwied, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. He is an actor and writer, known for Muxmäuschenstill (2004), Bedbugs (2017) and Short Cut to Hollywood (2009).- Director
- Writer
- Cinematographer
Thomas Arslan was born on 16 July 1962 in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, Germany. He is a director and writer, known for Dealer (1999), Gold (2013) and Scorched Earth (2024).- Writer
- Director
- Editor
Benjamin Heisenberg was born in 1974 in Tübingen, Germany. He grew up in small village near Würzburg where his father was professor of neurobiology at the local university. After finishing school in 1993 he went to study at the academy of fine arts in Munich. In 1995 he became assistant of Walther Grasskamp the professor for history of art at the art academy. He finished the academy of fine arts in 1998, winning the "Debütantenpreis" for the three best students of the year. He exhibited several art videos before he came to write, direct and shoot his first narrative short film "Terremoto" in 1996. These first experiences with film convinced him to go into filmmaking. From 1997 to 2005 Benjamin Heisenberg studied film directing at the Munich Filmschool. Since then he has written and directed a number of feature films that have won a variety of international film awards.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Romuald Karmakar was born in Wiesbaden on February 15 1965. The son of a French mother and an Iranian father lived with his parents in Athens from 1977 until 1982, and then relocated with his family to Munich, where he graduated from high school in 1984. The same year, he bought a Super 8 camera and started to make short films, including "Eine Freundschaft in Deutschland" (1985), in which he plays a young Adolf Hitler. The short documentary "Coup de boule" (1987) chronicles a bizarre ritual in a French army camp, where recruits bang their heads against the doors and lockers of their barracks. His short documentary "Demontage IX, Unternehmen Stahlglocke" won the award for Best German Short at the renowned Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen.
Karmakar returned to military surroundings for his first feature-length documentary: "Warheads" (DE/FR 1992) follows a German veteran of the foreign legion and an English mercenary during their stays in regions like French-Guyana and the battle-torn Croatia. "Warheads" garnered very positive reviews.
Karmaker's final breakthrough came with his first dramatic feature "Der Totmacher", an intimate study of serial killer Fritz Haarmann, who was played in the film by Götz George. The film premiered in the competition of the Venice IFF and George won the festival's Best Actor Award. At the German Film Awards, "Der Totmacher" took home the trophies for Best Film, Best Actor and Best Direction. It was also nominated at the European Film Awards in 1995 as 'Young European Film of the Year'.
Karmakar presented "Das Frankfurter Kreuz" (1998), an episodic drama set in a seedy dive bar on New Year's Eve, in the Panorama section of the 1998 Berlin IFF. The film marked his first collaboration with actor Manfred Zapatka, whom Karmakar has admired since Zapatka's portrayal of a pimp in Sohrab Sahid Saless' "Utopia" (1983). He again worked with the actor on "Das Himmler-Projekt" (2000), in which Zapatka recites the infamous three hour speech Heinrich Himmler held in front of 92 SS generals in 1943. The film premiered in the Forum section of the Berlin IFF. It went on to win the 3Sat-Dokumentarfilmpreis, and Karmakar and Zapatka also received a special prize at the Grimme Awards.
Despite mixed reviews, Karmakar's next drama feature "Manila" (2000), which portrays a group of travelers stranded at the Manila airport, garnered several awards, including the Silver Leopard at the Locarno IFF and the award for Best Screenplay (for Karmakar and his co-authour Bodo Kirchhoff) at the Bavarian Film Awards.
Following the experimental music documentary "196 BPM" (2002), Karmakar premiered two new films at the 2004 Berlin IFF: His much acclaimed documentary "Land der Vernichtung" (2004), which addresses the involvement of a Hamburg police battalion in the murder of 1,7 million Jews in Poland in 1942/1943, screened in the Panorama section of the festival. Meanwhile, the romantic drama "Die Nacht singt ihre Lieder" (2004), starring Frank Giering, Anne Ratte-Polle, Manfred Zapatka and Marthe Keller, screened in the official competition, but had a lukewarm critical reception.
After releasing the music documentary "Between the Devil and the Wide Blue Sea" (2005), Karmakar re-teamed with actor Manfred Zapatka for the project "Hamburger Lektionen": Similar in form to the "Das Himmler-Projekt", the film presents a scenic reading of lectures originally held by a radical Islamic cleric in Hamburg.
Karmakar contributed the segment "Ramses", a portrait of an Iranian bar owner in Berlin's red-light district, to the omnibus film "Deutschland '09 - 13 kurze Filme zur Lage der Nation" (2009). With "Ramses", Karmakar also paid tribute to "Utopia", one of his personal favorite (which he also requested to be screened in a retrospective dedicated to him in Vienna in 2010).
"Villalobos" (2009), which focuses on DJ Ricardo Villalobos, concluded Karmakar's loose trilogy of documentaries on music and club culture. This was followed by "Die Herde des Herrn" (2011), which looks at the aftermath of the death of Pope John Paul II and the finding of his successor Pope Benedict XVI. "Angriff auf die Demokratie - Eine Intervention", an engaging look at the political and economic crisis in Europe, premiered in the Panorama section at the 2012 Berlin IFF.
During the following years, Karmakar completed several short to mid-length documentaries and film essays, including his contribution to the German pavilion at the 55. Biennale in Venice. From 2012 until 2013, Karmakar was a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. In November 2014, he received the DEFA-Stiftung's award for exceptional achievements in German Cinema. The 2017 Berlin IFF saw the world premiere of Karmakar's feature-length documentary "Denk ich an Deutschland in der Nacht", in which he portrays five influential DJs of the German techno and electronic scene.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Nicolas Wackerbarth was born on 31 May 1973 in Munich, Bavaria, West Germany. He is an actor and director, known for Casting (2017), Halbe Stunden (2007) and Lovesick (2004).- Production Designer
- Art Director
- Director
- Writer
- Director
- Additional Crew
Wolfgang Kohlhaase was born on 13 March 1931 in Berlin, Germany. He was a writer and director, known for Solo Sunny (1980), The Break (1989) and Sommer vorm Balkon (2005). He was married to Emöke Pöstenyi. He died on 5 October 2022 in Berlin, Germany.- Writer
- Director
- Actress
Dörrie completed her schooling at a humanistic high school, from which she graduated in 1973 with her Abitur. In the same year he spent two years in the USA. There she studied film and acting at the Drama Department at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. This was followed by studies at the New School of Social Research in New York. She also worked in cafés and as a projectionist in the Goethe House in New York. In 1975 she returned to Germany. She then studied at the University of Television and Film in Munich. At the same time, she worked as a film critic journalist for the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Her final film is entitled "The First Waltz" and was broadcast on Bavarian television as "Max and Sandie". Doris Dörrie made various documentaries until 1982. In 1983 she made her first feature film in Munich called "Mitten ins Herz". Three years later she had a cinema hit with the title "Men". The well-known actors Uwe Ochsenknecht and Heiner Lauterbach star in the chaotic relationship comedy. The play became the most successful German film of 1986. Doris Dörrie was married to Helge Weindler from 1988 to 1996. Their daughter Carla was born in 1990.
In 1991 she had another cinema success with the title "Happy Birthday, Turk". She filmed the novel by the German writer Jakob Arjouni, a novel in the Kayankaya series. The witty film is in the tradition of classic detective films and tells the story of the search for a missing person in the Frankfurt milieu. The Turkish private detective Kayankaya, played by Hansa Czypionka, experiences police corruption. In 1994, Doris Dörrie shot the comedy film "Nobody Loves Me" with Maria Schrader. This production is about personal happiness. The work was honored with the silver film ribbon, the leading actress Maria Schrader with the gold film ribbon.
Her other film works include "No Trace of Romanticism" from 1980, "Between" from 1981, "Love in Germany" from 1989 and "Enlightenment Guaranteed" from 1999. Among all her film works The director also wrote the script herself. The films were often cast with well-known actors such as Senta Berger, Gottfried John or Uwe Ochsenknecht. She also shot the documentary entitled "What can it be?" In addition to her role behind the camera, she also performed guest roles in front of the camera. For example, she played in the film "The Leading Man" from 1977 or in "King Kong's Fist" and in "Back to Go" from 2000.
In addition to her film work, Doris Dörrie realized literary projects. This is how the short stories entitled "Love, Pain and All the Damned Stuff" and "What Do You Want from Me?" were created. She also wrote the short story "The Man of My Dreams" and the novel "What Do We Do Now?" In 1991 her collection of short stories entitled "Forever and Ever" was created. The 300-page work was well received by critics. In 2002 her film work entitled "Naked" and her novel "Happy" followed. In 2005 she staged Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Rigoletto" at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich under the musical direction of Zubin Mehta.
In the same year, 2005, she directed Giacomo Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" at the Gärtnerplatztheater. At the Salzburg Festival in 2006 she staged Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "La finta Giardiniera".- Director
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Caroline Link was born on 2 June 1964 in Bad Nauheim, Hesse, Germany. She is a director and writer, known for Nowhere in Africa (2001), Beyond Silence (1996) and Annaluise & Anton (1999).- Writer
- Actor
- Editor
Günter Schütter was born in 1959 in Remscheid, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He is a writer and actor, known for Police Call 110 (1971), Der Skorpion (1997) and The Invincibles (1994).