Rainer Werner Fassbinder, sometimes credited as R. W. Fassbinder, was a German filmmaker, actor, and dramatist. He is widely regarded as one of the major figures and catalysts of the New German Cinema movement. Versatile and prolific, his over 40 films span a variety of genres, most frequently blending elements of Hollywood melodrama with social criticism and avant-garde techniques. His films, according to him, explored "the exploitability of feelings". His work was deeply rooted in post-war German culture: the aftermath of Nazism, the German economic miracle, and the terror of the Red Army Faction. He worked with a company of actors and technicians who frequently appeared in his projects.
Patrick Süskind is a German writer and screenwriter, known best for his novel Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, first published in 1985.
Bruno Ganz was a Swiss actor whose career in German stage, television and film productions spanned nearly 60 years. He was known for his collaborations with the directors Werner Herzog, Éric Rohmer, Francis Ford Coppola, and Wim Wenders, earning widespread recognition with his roles as Jonathan Zimmerman in The American Friend (1977), Jonathan Harker in Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) and Damiel the Angel in Wings of Desire (1987).
RTL Group is a Luxembourg-based international media conglomerate, with another corporate centre in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The company operates 56 television channels and 36 radio stations in Germany, France and other European countries. It also offers national streaming platforms, content productions and a range of digital services. Important segments of RTL Group are RTL Deutschland, Groupe M6 and Fremantle.
UFA GmbH, shortened to UFA, is a film and television production company that unites all production activities of the media conglomerate Bertelsmann in Germany. The original UFA was established as Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft on December 18, 1917, as a direct response to foreign competition in film and propaganda. UFA was founded by a consortium headed by Emil Georg von Stauß, a former Deutsche Bank board member. In March 1927, Alfred Hugenberg, an influential German media entrepreneur and later Minister of the Economy and Minister of Agriculture and Nutrition in Adolf Hitler's cabinet, purchased UFA and transferred ownership of it to the Nazi Party in 1933.
Sönke Wortmann is a German film director and producer.
Jürgen Prochnow is a German-American actor. His international breakthrough was his portrayal of the good-hearted and sympathetic U-boat Commander "Der Alte" in the 1981 war film Das Boot.
Siegfried Lenz was a German writer of novels, short stories and essays, as well as dramas for radio and the theatre. In 2000 he received the Goethe Prize on the 250th Anniversary of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's birth. He won the 2010 International Nonino Prize in Italy.
The Marriage of Maria Braun is a 1978 West German drama film directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. The film stars Hanna Schygulla as Maria, whose marriage to the soldier Hermann remains unfulfilled due to World War II and his post-war imprisonment. Maria adapts to the realities of post-war Germany and becomes the wealthy mistress of an industrialist, all that while staying true to her love for Hermann.
Friedrich Carl Georg Kaiser, called Georg Kaiser, was a German dramatist.
Babelsberg Film Studio, located in Potsdam-Babelsberg outside Berlin, Germany, is the second oldest large-scale film studio in the world only preceded by the Danish Nordisk Film, producing films since 1912. With a total area of about 460,000 square metres (5,000,000 sq ft) and a studio area of about 25,000 square metres (270,000 sq ft) it is Europe's largest film studio.
Joe May was an Austrian film director and film producer and one of the pioneers of German cinema.
Sandra Hüller is a German actress. She has appeared in German, Austrian, American, British, and French films. She has received various accolades, including two European Film Awards, a César Award and three German Film Awards, along with nominations for an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and a Golden Globe Award. She gained international recognition in 2023 for her starring roles in Jonathan Glazer's Holocaust drama, The Zone of Interest, and Justine Triet's legal drama, Anatomy of a Fall. Her performances in them earned her two BAFTA Film Award nominations, while the latter won her a European Film Award and a César Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award.
Constantin Film AG is a German mini-major film production and distribution company based in Munich. The company, which belongs to Swiss media conglomerate Highlight Communications AG, is a large independent German maker and distributor of productions in the entire field of audio-visual fiction and non-fiction. Company activity is based on the five pillars of film production/procurement of rights, TV production, film distribution, home entertainment and licence trading/TV exploitation. Constantin Film AG has released 36 of the 100 most successful German films of the last 20 years, including four of the Top 5: Manitou's Shoe, Traumschiff Surprise – Periode 1, Fack ju Göhte and Fack ju Göhte 2. The Fack ju Göhte trilogy was concluded in 2017 with Fack ju Göhte 3 and is now the most successful German film series of all time. Internationally, Constantin Film is best known for the successful Resident Evil film franchise, which has earned US$1.2 billion worldwide to date and is also known as the highest-grossing film series based on a video game. Most recent successes include TV series Shadowhunters, which won four People's Choice Awards in 2018, and the live-action Resident Evil television series. Constantin has also been involved in 20th Century Fox's Fantastic Four film franchise. Other productions include bestseller adaptation The Silence and Monster Hunter.
Jan Josef Liefers, is a German actor, producer, director and musician.
Beyond Silence is a 1996 German film directed by Caroline Link. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 70th Academy Awards.
The Grimme-Preis is one of the most prestigious German television awards. It is named after the first general director of Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk, Adolf Grimme. It has been referred to in Kino magazine as the "German TV Oscar".
Nadja Uhl is a German actress.
Carsten Johannes Marcus Hübner is a German actor. He appeared in more than eighty films since 2003, including Magical Mystery or: The Return of Karl Schmidt and The Good Neighbour. Also known on TV for Transporter, Polizeiruf 110, crime series Post Mortem in 2007/2008.
Decla-Film was a German film production and distribution company of the silent era, founded by Erich Pommer and Fritz Holz in February 1915.
