Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck was born in Cologne in 1973 and grew up in New York, Frankfurt, Brussels, and Berlin. He holds a degree in Russian from St. Petersburg; in politics, philosophy, and economics from Oxford; and in filmmaking from the Munich Film Academy. His student short films won him several major awards, among them the Max Ophüls Prize and the Shocking Shorts Award from Universal Studios. Donnersmarck both wrote and directed his first feature film, Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others), a political drama set in 1984 East Berlin. He received the European Film Award and the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film of 2006. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s interests include tennis, philology, comparative religion, and African tribal art. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and a recipient of the Bavarian and North Rhine–Westphalian Order of Merit. He recently moved from Berlin to Los Angeles, with his wife and three children.