Matti Geschonneck (born 8 May 1952 in Potsdam) is a German film director.
Geschonneck is the son of German actor Erwin Geschonneck, who was one of the most famous actors in East Germany, and a half-brother of German forensic specialist and author Alexander Geschonneck. He grew up with his mother, actress Hannelore Wüst, and step-father Gerhard Scheumann, a well-known East German documentary film maker. He studied at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography in Moscow, but was pulled from his studies and lost his Communist party membership for his support of dissident Wolf Biermann after Biermann was stripped of his East German citizenship in 1976. Geschonneck used a work visa to move to West Germany in 1978.
After serving as an assistant director to Thomas Langhoff, Eberhard Fechner and Diethard Klante, Geschonneck released his first feature film Moebius in 1992, followed by a series of episodes of the popular German television crime series Tatort . In 1995, he directed the TV movie Matulla und Busch, which was the last film his father starred in. After years of TV work, his second theatrical release Boxhagener Platz debuted at the 2010 Berlin International Film Festival and was one of eight films shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for that year. His 2017 film In Times of Fading Light debuted at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival. His 2022 TV film Die Wannseekonferenz , about the 1942 Wannsee Conference to plan the Holocaust, received multiple recognitions. [1]
He has received a number of German film prizes. [2]
Geschonneck is married to screenwriter and film director Ina Weisse.
Karl Wolf Biermann is a German singer-songwriter, poet, and former East German dissident. He is perhaps best known for the 1968 song "Ermutigung" and his expatriation from East Germany in 1976.
Armin Mueller-Stahl is a retired German actor who also appeared in numerous English-language films since the 1980s. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Shine. In 2011, he was awarded the Honorary Golden Bear.
Fatih Akin is a German film director, screenwriter and producer. His films have won numerous awards and accolades, including the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for his film Head-On (2004), Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival for his film The Edge of Heaven (2007), and the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film for his film In the Fade (2017).
Frank Paul Beyer was a German film director. In East Germany he was one of the most important film directors, working for the state film monopoly DEFA and directed films that dealt mostly with the Nazi era and contemporary East Germany. His film Trace of Stones was banned for 20 years in 1966 by the ruling SED. His 1975 film Jacob the Liar was the only East German film ever nominated for an Academy Award. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 until his death he mostly directed television films.
Michael Rother is a German experimental musician, best known for being a founding member of the influential bands Neu! and Harmonia, and an early member of the band Kraftwerk.
Hanns Zischler is a German actor known for his cooperation with Wim Wenders's early films especially Kings of the Road (1976). Later he became an international star with his portrayal of Hans in Steven Spielberg's film Munich and the Russian Mafia's boss Igor Sergeyevich Baklanov in the 1996 pilot movie Der Clown. Zischler has appeared in more than 300 movies since 1968. He is known in Sweden for his role as Josef Hillman in the second season of the Martin Beck TV series, though his voice is dubbed.
Matthias Schweighöfer is a German actor and filmmaker known for his work in several German and American film productions. He is best known for his role as Lieutenant Franz Herber in the 2008 film Valkyrie. In 2021, Schweighöfer appeared in the Netflix film Army of the Dead, directed by Zack Snyder, as Ludwig Dieter. He reprised his role in the prequel film, Army of Thieves, which he also directed.
Diether Krebs was a German actor, cabaret artist and comedian.
Horst Sachtleben was a German actor, voice actor and stage director. He is known for his acting in Um Himmels Willen, a television series in 197 episodes between 2002 and 2020. On stage, he was engaged at the Hebbel Theater in Berlin, Schauspielhaus Zürich and Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel in Munich. As a voice artist, he dubbed Peter Falk in Columbo, Peter Fonda and Woody Allen, among others.
Erwin Geschonneck was a German actor. His biggest success occurred in the German Democratic Republic, where he was considered one of the most famous actors of the time.
The Wannsee Conference is a 1984 West German - Austrian TV film portraying the events of the Wannsee Conference, held in Berlin in January 1942. The script is derived from the minutes of the meeting. Since no verbatim transcription of the meeting exists, the dialogue is necessarily fictionalised. The main theme of the film is the bureaucratic nature of the genocide.
The Berlin International Film Festival, usually called the Berlinale, is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europe's "Big Three" film festivals alongside the Venice Film Festival held in Italy and the Cannes Film Festival held in France. Furthermore, it is one of the "Big Five", the most prestigious film festivals in the world. The festival regularly draws tens of thousands of visitors each year.
Michael Gwisdek was a German actor and film director.
Wolfgang Kohlhaase was a German screenwriter, film director, and writer. He was considered "one of the most important screenwriters in German film history", and was one of the GDR's most well-known and prolific film screenwriters. Kohlhaase was awarded the Honorary Golden Bear at the 2010 Berlin International Film Festival.
Lars Eidinger is a German actor and rapper, based in Berlin. He has appeared in German and international film and television productions, including the 2020 film My Little Sister, the German series Babylon Berlin (2017–2022), the 2023 American miniseries All the Light We Cannot See, and the 2024 film Dying.
In Times of Fading Light is a 2017 German drama film directed by Matti Geschonneck. The film shows a day in the life of a family in the GDR. It was screened in the Berlinale Special section at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival. It is based on the 2011 novel of the same name by Eugen Ruge.
Franz Rogowski is a German actor. He has appeared in films directed by Michael Haneke, Christian Petzold, Andrea Arnold, and Terrence Malick.
Boxhagener Platz is a 2010 German comedy film directed by Matti Geschonneck. The film premiered at the 2010 Berlin International Film Festival. In late 2010, it was put on a shortlist, with eight other films, for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Philipp Hochmair ; born 16 October 1973) is an Austrian theater, film and television actor.
Die Wannseekonferenz, international title The Conference, is a German TV docudrama, first aired January 24, 2022 by the ZDF broadcaster, about the Wannsee Conference held in Berlin-Wannsee in 1942 to organise the extermination of the Jews.