Top 100 German Directors

1. Robert Wiene

Robert Wiene was born on April 24, 1873 in Breslau, Silesia, Germany [now Wroclaw, Dolnoslaskie, Poland]. He was a writer and director, known for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), Das wandernde Licht (1916) and The Knight of the Rose (1925). He died on July 17, 1938 in Paris, France.

2. Paul Wegener

Actor | Der Golem

Paul Wegener was born in Arnoldsdorf, West Prussia, part of the German Empire. His birthplace is currently part of Poland, under the name "Jarantowice". Wegener's family included a number of scientists, the most notable being his cousin Alfred Wegener (1880-1930). Alfred is remembered as the ...

3. Erich von Stroheim

Actor | Sunset Blvd.

Erich von Stroheim was born Erich Oswald Stroheim in 1885, in Vienna, Austria, to Johanna (Bondy), from Prague, and Benno Stroheim, a hatter from Gleiwitz, Germany (now Gliwice, Poland). His family was Jewish.

After spending some time working in his father's hat factory, he emigrated to America ...

4. Ernst Laemmle

Director | Prowlers of the Night

Along with screenwriter Isadore Bernstein, producer/writer Jesse J. Goldburg, producer Sol M. Wurtzel and a handful of others, Ernst Laemmle was a founder Temple Israel in Hollywood in 1926. Temple Israel was ground in the spirit of social activism and prophetic justice. Its first location was a ...

5. Ewald André Dupont

Writer | Varieté

German film director E.A. Dupont was an influential critic and newspaper columnist before breaking into the film industry. He wrote several screenplays and worked as a story editor for Richard Oswald before turning to directing in 1917. Over the next eight years Dupont became a respected exponent ...

6. Fritz Lang

Actor | Le mépris

Fritz Lang was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1890. His father managed a construction company. His mother, Pauline Schlesinger, was Jewish but converted to Catholicism when Lang was ten. After high school, he enrolled briefly at the Technische Hochschule Wien and then started to train as a painter. ...

7. F.W. Murnau

Director | Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

F.W. Murnau was a German film director. He was greatly influenced by Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Shakespeare and Ibsen plays he had seen at the age of 12, and became a friend of director Max Reinhardt. During World War I he served as a company commander at the eastern front and was in the German air ...

8. Walter Ruttmann

Cinematographer | Metropolis

Walter Ruttmann was born on December 28, 1887 in Frankfurt-on-Main, Germany. He was a director and writer, known for Metropolis (1927), Mannesmann - Ein Film der Mannesmannröhren-Werke (1937) and Acciaio (1933). He was married to Christine Margarete Helene Prasch, Nina Hamson, Erna Treitel and...

9. Paul Leni

Director | The Man Who Laughs

Paul Leni was born on July 8, 1885 in Stuttgart, Germany. He was an art director and director, known for The Man Who Laughs (1928), Das Rätsel von Bangalor (1918) and The Last Warning (1928). He died on September 2, 1929 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

10. Georg Wilhelm Pabst

Director | Komödianten

Georg Wilhelm Pabst is considered by many to be the greatest director of German cinema, in his era. He was especially appreciated by actors and actresses for the humane way in which he treated them. This was in contrast to some of his contemporaries, such as Arnold Fanck, who have been ...

11. Joe May

Director | Asphalt

A businessman and operetta director, Joe May, one of the founders of the German cinema, started directing films in 1911 and started his own production company a few years later. He gave famous German director Fritz Lang his start in films, employing him as a screenwriter in his early films. After ...

12. Josef von Sternberg

Director | The Devil Is a Woman

Josef von Sternberg split his childhood between Vienna and New York City. His father, a former soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army, could not support his family in either city; Sternberg remembered him only as "an enormously strong man who often used his strength on me." Forced by poverty to drop ...

13. Leni Riefenstahl

Producer | Das blaue Licht - Eine Berglegende aus den Dolomiten

Leni Riefenstahl's show-biz experience began with an experiment: she wanted to know what it felt like to dance on the stage. Success as a dancer gave way to film acting when she attracted the attention of film director Arnold Fanck, subsequently starring in some of his mountaineering pictures. With...

14. Max Reinhardt

Director | Sumurûn

Max Reinhardt was from an Austrian merchant family (surname officially changed from the family name Goldmann to Reinhardt in 1904), and even as a boy, after his family moved to Vienna, he haunted the "Hofburg Theater" and tried to see every play. In 1890 he studied at the Sulkowsky Theater in ...

15. Willi Forst

Actor | Bel Ami

Willi Forst was born on April 7, 1903 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria]. He was an actor and director, known for Bel Ami (1939), Operette (1940) and Vienna Blood (1942). He was married to Melanie. He died on August 11, 1980 in Vienna, Austria.

16. William Dieterle

Actor | Faust: Eine deutsche Volkssage

Born in Ludwigshafen, Germany, Wilhelm Dieterle was the youngest of nine children of parents Jacob and Berthe Dieterle. They lived in poverty, and when he was old enough to work, young Wilhelm earned money as a carpenter and a scrap dealer. He dreamed of better things, though, and theater caught ...

17. Hans Steinhoff

Director | Ohm Krüger

Hans Steinhoff was born on March 10, 1882 in Marienberg, Saxony, Germany. He was a director and writer, known for Ohm Krüger (1941), The Making of a King (1935) and Robert Koch: The Battle Against Death (1939). He died on April 20, 1945 in Luckenwalde, Brandenburg, Germany.

18. Ernst Lubitsch

Director | To Be or Not to Be

From Ernst Lubitsch's experiences in Sophien Gymnasium (high school) theater, he decided to leave school at the age of 16 and pursue a career on the stage. He had to compromise with his father and keep the account books for the family tailor business while he acted in cabarets and music halls at ...

19. Ludwig Berger

Director | The Thief of Bagdad

Ludwig Berger was born on January 6, 1892 in Mainz, Hesse [now Rhineland-Palatinate], Germany. He was a director and writer, known for The Thief of Bagdad (1940), Le petit café (1931) and Playboy of Paris (1930). He died on May 18, 1969 in Schlangenbad, Hesse, Germany.

20. Herbert Selpin

Director | Trenck, der Pandur

Herbert Selpin was born on May 29, 1902 in Berlin, Germany. He was a director and writer, known for Trenck, der Pandur (1940), Titanic (1943) and The Dream of the Rhine (1933). He was married to Annie Markart. He died on August 1, 1942 in Berlin, Germany.

21. Werner Klingler

Director | Die letzten Vier von Santa Cruz

Werner Klingler was born on October 23, 1903 in Stuttgart, Germany. He was a director and actor, known for Die letzten Vier von Santa Cruz (1936), Die barmherzige Lüge (1939) and Das Geheimnis der schwarzen Koffer (1962). He died on June 23, 1972 in Berlin, Germany.

22. Veit Harlan

Director | Die goldene Stadt

Veit Harlan was born on September 22, 1899 in Berlin, Germany. He was a director and actor, known for Die goldene Stadt (1942), Der große König (1942) and Jud Süß (1940). He was married to Kristina Söderbaum, Hilde Körber and Dora Gerson. He died on April 13, 1964 in Capri, ...

23. Robert Siodmak

Director | Nachts wenn der Teufel kam

Robert Siodmak (8 August 1900 - 10 March 1973) was a German-born, American film director. He is best remembered as a thriller specialist and for a series of stylish, unpretentious Hollywood films noirs he made in the 1940s.

Siodmak (pronounced SEE-ODD-MACK) was born in Dresden, Germany, the son of ...

24. Edgar G. Ulmer

Director | The Naked Dawn

Edgar G. Ulmer was born on September 17, 1904 in Olmütz, Moravia, Austria-Hungary [now Olomouc, Czech Republic]. He was a director and writer, known for The Naked Dawn (1955), The Black Cat (1934) and Isle of Forgotten Sins (1943). He was married to Shirley Ulmer and Joan Warner. He died on ...

25. Helmut Käutner

Director | Der Hauptmann von Köpenick

Helmut Käutner was born on March 25, 1908 in Düsseldorf, Germany. He was a director and writer, known for The Captain from Köpenick (1956), The Last Bridge (1954) and The Rest Is Silence (1959). He was married to Erica Balqué. He died on April 20, 1980 in Castellina in Chianti, Tuscany, Italy.

26. Wolfgang Staudte

Director | Ciske de Rat

Wolfgang Staudte was born on October 9, 1906 in Saarbrücken, Germany. He was a director and actor, known for Ciske de Rat (1955), Rotation (1949) and Murderers Among Us (1946). He was married to Angelika Hoffmann, Rita Heidelbach, Ingmar Zeisberg and Renate Praetorius. He died on January 19, 1984 ...

27. Peter Lorre

Actor | M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder

Peter Lorre was born László Löwenstein in Rózsahegy in the Slovak area of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the son of Hungarian Jewish parents. He learned both Hungarian and German languages from birth, and was educated in elementary and secondary schools in the Austria-Hungary capitol Vienna, but did ...

28. Fred Zinnemann

Director | A Man for All Seasons

Initially grew up wanting to be a violinist, but while at the University of Vienna decided to study law. While doing so, he became increasingly interested in American film and decided that was what he wanted to do. He became involved in European filmaking for a short time before going to America to...

29. Otto Preminger

Actor | Stalag 17

Otto Ludwig Preminger was born in Wiznitz, Bukovina, Austria-Hungary. His father was a prosecutor, and Otto originally intended to follow his father into a law career; however, he fell in love with the theater in his 20's and became one of the most imaginative stage producers and directors. He was ...

30. Henry Koster

Director | Harvey

Henry Koster was born Herman Kosterlitz in Berlin, Germany, on May 1, 1905. His maternal grandfather was a famous operatic tenor Julius Salomon (who died of tuberculosis in the 1880s). His father was a salesman of ladies unmentionables who left the family while Henry was at a young age, leaving him...

31. Max Ophüls

Director | La ronde

Director Max Ophüls was born Max Oppenheimer in Saarbrücken, Germany. He began his career as a stage actor and director in the golden twenties. He worked in cities such as Stuttgart, Dortmund, Wuppertal, Vienna, Frankfurt, Breslau and Berlin. In 1929 his son Marcel Ophüls was born in Frankfurt, ...

32. Ernst Marischka

Writer | Der veruntreute Himmel

Ernst Marischka was born on January 2, 1893 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria]. He was a writer and director, known for Embezzled Heaven (1958), Sissi - Schicksalsjahre einer Kaiserin (1957) and Sissi - Die junge Kaiserin (1956). He was married to Lilly Marischka. He died on May 12, 1963 in ...

33. Kurt Neumann

Director | Rocketship X-M

Kurt Neumann was born on April 5, 1908 in Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany. He was a director and writer, known for Rocketship X-M (1950), The Fly (1958) and She Devil (1957). He was married to Irma Ely Neumann. He died on August 21, 1958 in Hollywood, California, USA.

34. Billy Wilder

Writer | The Apartment

Originally planning to become a lawyer, Billy Wilder abandoned that career in favor of working as a reporter for a Viennese newspaper, using this experience to move to Berlin, where he worked for the city's largest tabloid. He broke into films as a screenwriter in 1929 and wrote scripts for many ...

35. Douglas Sirk

Director | Schlußakkord

Film director Douglas Sirk, whose reputation blossomed in the generation after his 1959 retirement from Hollywood filmmaking, was born Hans Detlef Sierck on April 26, 1897, in Hamburg, Germany, to a journalist. Both of his parents were Danish, and the future director would make movies in German, ...

36. Bernhard Wicki

Director | The Longest Day

Bernhard Wicki was born on October 28, 1919 in St. Pölten, Lower Austria, Austria. He was an actor and director, known for The Longest Day (1962), The Bridge (1959) and The Miracle of Father Malachia (1961). He was married to Elisabeth Endriss and Agnes Fink. He died on January 5, 2000 in Munich, ...

37. Alexander Kluge

Director | Abschied von gestern - (Anita G.)

Writer. Director. Producer. Studied law and graduated. Was one of the founders of the Oberhausener Manifest in 1962. Since 1962 Headmaster of the 'Institut fuer Filmgestaltung' at the 'Hochschule fuer Gestaltung' in Ulm, Germany. Since 1988 produces broadcastings dealing with cultural aspects in ...

38. Walter Heynowski

Director | Am Wassergraben

Walter Heynowski was born on November 20, 1927 in Ingolstadt, Germany. He is a director and writer, known for Am Wassergraben (1978), Pilots in Pajamas (1968) and Der Präsident im Exil (1969).

39. Gerhard Scheumann

Director | Piloten im Pyjama

Gerhard Scheumann was born on December 25, 1930 in Ortelsburg, East Prussia, Germany [now Szczytno, Warminsko-Mazurskie, Poland]. He was a director and writer, known for Pilots in Pajamas (1968), Der Präsident im Exil (1969) and Am Wassergraben (1978). He died on May 30, 1998 in Berlin, ...

40. Konrad Wolf

Director | Professor Mamlock

He was the son of the German dramatist Friedrich Wolf. He left Germany with his family for the USSR and came back to Germany as a nineteen year old Lieutenant in the Russian Army in 1945. Was a short time commander of the town Bernau near Berlin in Spring 1945. _Ich war 19 (1968)_ is an ...

41. Klaus Wildenhahn

Director | Institutssommer

Klaus Wildenhahn was born on June 19, 1930 in Bonn, Germany. He was a director and writer, known for Institutssommer (1970), Smith, James O. - Organist, USA (1966) and Tor 2 (1979). He was married to Mizuki Wildenhahn. He died on August 9, 2018 in Hamburg, Germany.

42. Marcel Ophüls

Director | Hôtel Terminus

Marcel Ophuls (actually Marcel Oppenheimer) is the son of the famous German film maker Max Ophüls. He spent his formative years in Hollywood, briefly served with a U.S. Army theatrical unit in Japan in 1946 and then attended the University of California, Berkely. In 1950, already a naturalized ...

43. André Delvaux

Director | De man die zijn haar kort liet knippen

After having studied German philology, law, piano and composition Andre Delvaux filmed some TV documentaries. In 1965 he debuted in the movies with a film adapted from a novel of Johan Daisne. His films always played in a set between reality and fantasy. Writing his own scripts he filmed e.g. Een ...

44. Werner Herzog

Director | Fitzcarraldo

Director. Writer. Producer. Actor. Poet. He studied history, literature and theatre for some time, but didn't finish it and founded instead his own film production company in 1963. Later in his life, Herzog also staged several operas in Bayreuth, Germany, and at the Milan Scala in Italy. Herzog has...

45. Werner Schroeter

Director | Nel regno di Napoli

The key person of the New German Cinema of the '70s. His works, mostly shot in 16mm, combine an intense interest and knowledge of German history and personal dramatic and emotional investigations. Malina (1991) which stars Isabelle Huppert is one of the great classics of modern cinema and deals ...

46. Klaus Lemke

Director | Amore

Klaus Lemke was born on October 13, 1940 in Landsberg an der Warthe, Germany [now Gorzów Wielkopolski, Lubuskie, Poland]. He was a director and writer, known for Amore (1978), Liebe, so schön wie Liebe (1972) and Bibo's Männer (1986). He died on July 7, 2022 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany.

47. Volker Schlöndorff

Director | Die Blechtrommel

Has studied economy and political sciences as well as at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Cinematographique (IDHEC) in Paris, France. Worked as an assistant director with Louis Malle, Jean-Pierre Melville and Alain Resnais. Founded his own production company Bioskop Film together with Reinhard Hauff ...

48. Margarethe von Trotta

Director | Hannah Arendt

Margarethe von Trotta was born in Berlin in 1942. In the 1960s she moved to Paris where she worked for film collectives, collaborating on scripts and co-directing short films. She also pursued an acclaimed acting career, starring in films by well known German directors such as Rainer Werner ...

49. Hans-Jürgen Syberberg

Director | Ludwig - Requiem für einen jungfräulichen König

Hans-Jürgen Syberberg was born on December 8, 1935 in Nossendorf, Pomerania, Prussia [now Mecklenburg-Vorpommern], Germany. He is a director and producer, known for Ludwig - Requiem for a Virgin King (1972), Die Nacht (1985) and Scarabea - wieviel Erde braucht der Mensch? (1969).

50. Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Writer | Faustrecht der Freiheit

Above all, Rainer Werner Fassbinder was a rebel whose life and art was marked by gross contradiction. Openly homosexual, he married twice; one of his wives acted in his films and the other served as his editor. Accused variously by detractors of being anticommunist, male chauvinist, antiSemitic and...

51. Helma Sanders-Brahms

Director | Deutschland bleiche Mutter

Helma Sanders-Brahms was born on November 20, 1940 in Emden, Province of Hanover, Prussia [now Lower Saxony], Germany. She was a director and writer, known for Germany Pale Mother (1980), No Mercy, No Future (1981) and Laputa (1986). She died on May 27, 2014 in Berlin, Germany.

52. Wolfgang Petersen

Director | Das Boot

A controversial film maker, Wolfgang Petersen has at once been lauded for his professionalism and attention to detail and decried for turning out a string of standard commercial Hollywood blockbusters. The son of a naval officer, Petersen held a lifelong fascination with the sea and naval subjects....

53. Dick Maas

Writer | Prooi

Dick Maas was born on April 15, 1951 in Heemstede, Noord-Holland, Netherlands. He is a writer and producer, known for Prey (2016), Saint (2010) and Amsterdamned (1988). He is married to Esmé Lammers.

54. Edgar Reitz

Director | Die andere Heimat - Chronik einer Sehnsucht

Studied theatre science, German philology, art history, and publicism in Munich. Published some poems and short stories during early 1950s, co-edited the literature magazine "Spuren". In 1952, he took acting lessons, co-founded a student theatre which became established as the university's studio ...

55. Pim de la Parra

Writer | Paul Chevrolet en de ultieme hallucinatie

Pim de la Parra was born on January 4, 1940 in Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana [now Suriname]. He is a writer and director, known for Paul Chevrolet en de ultieme hallucinatie (1985), Lost in Amsterdam (1989) and Obsessions (1969).

56. Wim Wenders

Director | Der Himmel über Berlin

Wim Wenders is an Oscar-nominated German filmmaker who was born Ernst Wilhelm Wenders on August 14, 1945 in Düsseldorf, which then was located in the British Occupation Zone of what became the Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Federal Republic of Germany, known colloquially as West Germany until ...

57. Joris Ivens

Director | La Seine a rencontré Paris

Joris Ivens was born on November 18, 1898 in Nijmegen, Gelderland, Netherlands. He was a director and writer, known for La Seine a rencontré Paris (1957), The Mistral (1966) and A Tale of the Wind (1988). He was married to Marceline Loridan Ivens, Helen van Dongen and Germaine Krull. He died...

58. Percy Adlon

Director | Out of Rosenheim

Percy Adlon is best known for his film "Bagdad Cafe" aka "Out of Rosenheim." He was born on June 1, 1935 in Munich, the son of Paul Rudolf Laubenthal, a prominent opera singer, and Susanne Adlon, and grew up in Ammerland/Starnbergersee, in the Bavarian countryside. He studied art and theater ...

59. Uli Edel

Director | Der Baader Meinhof Komplex

Uli Edel was born on April 11, 1947 in Neuenburg am Rhein, Germany. He is a director and writer, known for The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008), Christiane F. (1981) and Das Adlon. Eine Familiensaga (2013).

60. Harun Farocki

Director | Memories

The German film director, screenwriter and media artist Harun Farocki was born on the 9th January 1944 in Nový Jicín [Neutitschein], at that time a part of Czechoslovakia annexed by the Third Reich. He was the son of an immigrated Indian doctor and a German woman. Farocki first studied Theatre, ...

61. Ulrike Ottinger

Director | Johanna D'Arc of Mongolia

Ulrike Ottinger was born on June 6, 1942 in Konstanz, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. She is a director and writer, known for Joan of Arc of Mongolia (1989), China. Die Künste - der Alltag. Eine filmische Reisebeschreibung (1986) and Prater (2007).

62. Michael Verhoeven

Director | Das schreckliche Mädchen

Michael Verhoeven was born on July 13, 1938 in Berlin, Germany. He was a director and writer, known for The Nasty Girl (1990), My Mother's Courage (1995) and Sonntagskinder (1980). He was married to Senta Berger. He died on April 22, 2024 in Grünwald, Bavaria, Germany.

63. Peter Nestler

Director | Spanien

Peter Nestler was born on June 1, 1937 in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. He is a director and writer, known for Spain! (1973), Pachamama - Unsere Erde (1995) and Mülheim/Ruhr (1964).

64. Paul Verhoeven

Director | RoboCop

Paul Verhoeven graduated from the University of Leiden, with a degree in math and physics. He entered the Royal Netherlands Navy, where he began his film career by making documentaries for the Navy and later for TV. In 1969, he directed the popular Dutch TV series, Floris (1969), about a medieval ...

65. Jan de Bont

Director | Speed

Jan de Bont was one of 17 children born into a Roman Catholic Dutch family in Eindhoven on 22 October 1943. Credited with being creative and having a good mentality for camera techniques, he became a popular cinematographer. He worked on a huge number of films before finding himself on the ...

66. Marleen Gorris

Director | Antonia

Marleen Gorris was born on December 9, 1948 in Roermond, Limburg, Netherlands. She is a director and writer, known for Antonia's Line (1995), A Question of Silence (1982) and Broken Mirrors (1984).

67. Michael Haneke

Writer | Caché

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 ...

68. Heddy Honigmann

Director | Forever

Heddy Honigmann was born on October 1, 1951 in Lima, Peru. She was a director and writer, known for Forever (2006), Oblivion (2008) and Crazy (1999). She was married to Frans van de Staak, Henk Timmermans and Gustavo Riofrio . She died on May 21, 2022 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

69. Johan van der Keuken

Director | Face Value

Johan van der Keuken was born on April 4, 1938 in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands. He was a director and editor, known for Face Value (1991), Amsterdam Global Village (1996) and The Eye Above the Well (1988). He was married to Noshka Van der Lely. He died on January 7, 2001 in Amsterdam, ...

70. Tom Tykwer

Writer | Lola rennt

Director, writer, producer and composer Tom Tykwer was born in 1965 in Wuppertal, Germany. He showed an interest in film-making from childhood, making super 8 films from the age of 11. Among his first jobs was working at a local art-house cinema. Tykwer eventually relocated to Berlin, first working...

71. Ulrich Seidl

Producer | Rimini

Ulrich Seidl was born on November 24, 1952 in Vienna, Austria. He is a producer and director, known for Rimini (2022), Paradise: Love (2012) and Goodnight Mommy (2014). He is married to Veronika Franz. They have two children.

72. Wolfgang Becker

Director | Good Bye Lenin!

Wolfgang Becker was born on June 22, 1954 in Hemer, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He is a director and writer, known for Good Bye Lenin! (2003), Schmetterlinge (1988) and Child's Play (1992).

73. André Heller

Director | Im toten Winkel - Hitlers Sekretärin

André Heller was born on March 22, 1947 in Vienna, Austria. He is a director and writer, known for Im toten Winkel - Hitlers Sekretärin (2002), Scheitern, scheitern, besser scheitern (2010) and The Odessa File (1974). He was previously married to Erika Pluhar.

74. Othmar Schmiderer

Director | Im toten Winkel - Hitlers Sekretärin

Othmar Schmiderer was born in Lofer, Austria. He is known for Im toten Winkel - Hitlers Sekretärin (2002), Josef Hauser - Klang und Raum (1988) and Mobile Stabile (1992).

75. Oliver Hirschbiegel

Director | Das Experiment

Born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1957. In his teens he left high school and worked as a cooker in a boat.

Then he studied painting and graphism in the Academy of arts in Hamburg where he also started experimenting with video and photography. Those experimental movies attracted the attention of some ...

76. Götz Spielmann

Writer | Revanche

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 ...

77. Hans Weingartner

Director | Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei

Hans Weingartner was born on November 2, 1977 in Feldkirch, Vorarlberg, Austria. He is a director and writer, known for The Edukators (2004), Das weiße Rauschen (2001) and 303 (2018).

78. Nikolaus Geyrhalter

Producer | Erde

Nikolaus Geyrhalter was born in 1972 in Vienna, Austria. He is a producer and director, known for Earth (2019), Over the Years (2015) and Our Daily Bread (2005).

79. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

Director | Das Leben der Anderen

As the son of a Lufthansa manager, Henckel von Donnersmarck spent his childhood and school years in New York, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main and Brussels, where he passed his international high school diploma in 1991. He then spent two years studying in Leningrad (Saint Petersburg) with the following ...

80. Stefan Haupt

Director | Der Kreis

Stefan Haupt was born in 1961 in Zürich, Kanton Zürich, Switzerland. He is a director and writer, known for The Circle (2014), Utopia Blues (2001) and A Song For Argyris (2006).

81. Fatih Akin

Director | Aus dem Nichts

Fatih Akin was born in 1973 in Hamburg of Turkish parentage. He began studying Visual Communications at Hamburg's College of Fine Arts in 1994. His collaboration with Wueste Film also dates from this time. In 1995, he wrote and directed his first short feature, "Sensin - You're The One!" ("Sensin -...

82. Akiz

Director | Der Nachtmahr

AKIZ, (Achim Bornhak), born in germany, studied direction at the Film Academy Baden-Wuerttemberg. Two of his student films got nominated at the Academy Awards for the Oscar. In 1995 AKIZ received a scholarship to attend graduate film school at the University of Southern California. 1997 he directed...

83. Doris Dörrie

Writer | Kirschblüten - Hanami

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 ...

84. Dennis Gansel

Director | Die Welle

Born in 1973 in Hannover, Germany, Dennis Gansel studied at Munich Film School HFF. Remarkably his first feature length movie Das Phantom (2000) was shot while he was still studying. Between his movies Girls on Top (2001), Before the Fall (2004) and The Wave (2008) he spent a long time struggling ...

85. Robert Schwentke

Writer | Der Hauptmann

Robert Schwentke was born in 1968 in Stuttgart, Germany. He is a writer and director, known for The Captain (2017), RED (2010) and Eierdiebe (2003).

86. Jessica Hausner

Director | Little Joe

Jessica Hausner was born on October 6, 1972 in Vienna, Austria. She is a director and writer, known for Little Joe (2019), Lourdes (2009) and Amour Fou (2014).

87. Anton Corbijn

Director | Control

Anton Corbijn was born on May 20, 1955 in Strijen, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands. He is a director and actor, known for Control (2007), A Most Wanted Man (2014) and The American (2010).

88. Roland Emmerich

Writer | Independence Day

Roland Emmerich is a German film director and producer of blockbuster films like The Day After Tomorrow (2004), Godzilla (1998), Independence Day (1996) and The Patriot (2000). Before fame, he originally wanted to be a production designer, but decided to be a director, after watching the original ...

89. Jan Vogel

Cinematographer | Wasted Youth

Jan Vogel is known for Wasted Youth (2011), The Promised Land (2023) and Wild Duck (2013).

90. Michaël R. Roskam

Director | The Drop

Michaël R. Roskam was born on October 9, 1972 in Sint-Truiden, Flanders, Belgium. He is a producer and director, known for The Drop (2014), Bullhead (2011) and Racer and the Jailbird (2017). He has been married to Eline De Munck since January 9, 2021.

91. Christian Petzold

Director | Barbara

Christian Petzold was born in Hilden in 1960. After studying German and Drama at the Freie Universität Berlin, he enrolled in Berlin's German Academy for Film and Television (DFFB). There he studied film direction while at same time working as an assistant director to Harun Farocki and Hartmut ...

92. Dietrich Brüggemann

Director | Tatort

Dietrich Brüggemann was born on February 23, 1976 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. He is a director and writer, known for Tatort (1970), Stations of the Cross (2014) and Heil (2015).

93. Sebastian Schipper

Director | Victoria

Sebastian Schipper was born on May 8, 1968 in Hanover, Lower Saxony, West Germany. He is an actor and director, known for Victoria (2015), Roads (2019) and The English Patient (1996).

94. Maren Ade

Producer | Toni Erdmann

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...

95. Michael Dudok de Wit

Writer | La tortue rouge

Michael Dudok de Wit was born on July 15, 1953 in Abcoude, Utrecht, Netherlands. He is a writer and director, known for The Red Turtle (2016), Father and Daughter (2000) and The Monk and the Fish (1994).

96. Valeska Grisebach

Director | Western

Valeska Grisebach was born on January 4, 1968 in Bremen, West Germany [now Germany]. She is a director and writer, known for Western (2017), Sehnsucht (2006) and Be My Star (2001).

97. Felix van Groeningen

Director | Beautiful Boy

Felix van Groeningen was born on November 1, 1977 in Gent, Flanders, Belgium. He is a director and writer, known for Beautiful Boy (2018), The Broken Circle Breakdown (2012) and The Eight Mountains (2022).

98. Lukas Dhont

Director | Close

Belgian film director and screenwriter. He was featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list in 2019.

Dhont was born in Ghent, Belgium. His mother, Hilbe is a fashion teacher at an art school. He has a younger brother Michiel who is a producer. As a teenager, Dhont worked as a costume design assistant ...

99. Katerina Strauch

Producer | Cortázar

Katerina Strauch is known for Cortázar (2021), Stories of Endangered Species and Notes from a Sea Voyage (2023).

100. Anja Hiddinga

Director | I Sign, I Live

Anja Hiddinga is known for I Sign, I Live (2012), Imaginings (2022) and Motioning (2005).