
Directing
Christian Petzold
Born
1960-09-14 (66)
Place of birth
Hilden, Germany
Known for
Directing
Credits
62 titles
Christian Petzold (born September 14, 1960; Hilden) is a German filmmaker, best known for directing the films Barbara, Jerichow, and Phoenix. He is credited to the Berlin School and has received numerous prizes and awards. Petzold writes his own scenarios, often collaborating with Harun Farocki. As his former teacher at dffb, Farocki was a major influence on Petzold, who, along with Angela Schanelec and Thomas Arslan, is generally considered to be part of the Berlin School. While the Berlin School is often associated with a new turn towards realism and political cinema, Petzold's films, while they address issues of work and employment, also deal with conflicts between life and death. His f…
Known for
No synopsis available yet.
Volle Kanne
1999
Annual awarding of the Grimme Awards.
Grimme Award
1964
No synopsis available yet.
German Film Award
1951
No synopsis available yet.
Romy Award
1990
No synopsis available yet.
Bavarian Film Awards
1979
6.8Self-important author Leon joins his best friend on a summer holiday near the Baltic Sea to complete his novel. When they arrive, they find their house is already occupied by a carefree woman who challenges Leon to open up. Meanwhile, forest wildfires rage around them and impending disaster looms.
Afire
2023
Film credits
2020s · 2 titles
7.2Throughout the 19th century, imaginative and visionary artists and inventors brought about the advent of a new look, absolutely modern and truly cinematographic, long before the revolutionary invention of the Lumière brothers and the arrival of December 28, 1895, the historic day on which the first cinema performance took place.
The Cinematograph: Birth of an Art
2021
7.2He is the despicable child killer in Fritz Lang's M. Drawing on testimonies and archives, this portrait sheds light on Peter Lorre's turbulent career and complex personality, unable to escape the monster that made him famous.
Peter Lorre : Derrière le masque du maudit
2024
2010s · 4 titles
NRNew conversation between director Christian Petzold and actor Nina Hoss
Love/Work/Cinema: A Conversation with Christian Petzold and Nina Hoss
2016
7.0Documentary about German film critic Michael Althen.
Was heißt hier Ende? Der Filmkritiker Michael Althen
2015
4.02014 documentary featuring interviews with Petzold, Hoss, actors Nina Kunzendorf and Ronald Zehrfeld, and production designer K. D. Gruber
The Making of 'Phoenix'
2014
NR"Où en êtes-vous ?" (Where do you stand today?) is a project initiated by the Centre Pompidou, which commissions its guest filmmakers to make a free-form film in response to a question simultaneously retrospective, introspective and focused on their future ideas and projects. Here Christian Petzold is joined by Christoph Hochhäusler as they analyze a sequence from Hitchcock's The Wrong Man (1956) through a series of photograms. With this tribute to Harun Farocki, who died in 2014, Christian Petzold endeavors to revive and perpetuate the spirit, taste and methods of his former teacher and friend.
Where Do You Stand Today, Christian Petzold?
2017
2000s · 2 titles
This is not merely another film about cinema history; it is a film about the love of cinema, a journey of discovery through over a century of German film history. Ten people working in film today remember their favourite films of yesteryear.
Auge in Auge - Eine deutsche Filmgeschichte
2008
Only the chosen few know this woman who started working as a secretary for the German Film and Television Academy (DFFB) on 13 February, 1966. The path of Helen’s career is paved with famous names – including that of Wolfgang Petersen, Holger Meins (who later became a member of the Red Army Faction) as well as directors Wolfgang Becker, Detlev Buck and Christian Petzold. All have fond memories of forgetting their troubles after having poured their hearts out over a cup of coffee in Helene’s office – for Helene was both friend and advisor to countless film students.
Who is Helene Schwarz?
2005
1990s · 5 titles
Portraits of students of Berlin Film School.
19 Portraits
1990
The revolution is as good as over, but the captain wants to send his crew into one last battle. Before this can happen, however, he is murdered. The crew is finally free. Meanwhile, the revolutionary Snow White has hidden on the ship, but she is discovered.
Navy Cut
1993
6.5Barrage and Bunker is an essay film about the (narrative) space imagined by fiction films. Reflections and associations about movement in space are the basis of every kind of story-telling. The film is sometimes referred to as part of Bitomsky's Cinema Trilogy. Sequences from over 20 movies are quoted and commented on by a team of three "researchers" (Bitomsky, Petzold, Tanner) in a sort of laboratory. TV-monitors, production stills and screenshots are used as well as quotations from books. A long night's work.
Barrage and Bunker
1991
No synopsis available yet.
Der Beigeschmack des Todes
1992
No synopsis available yet.
Isaak Babel - Die Reiterarmee
1990
Series credits
No synopsis available yet.
Volle Kanne
1999
Annual awarding of the Grimme Awards.
Grimme Award
1964
No synopsis available yet.
German Film Award
1951
No synopsis available yet.
Romy Award
1990
No synopsis available yet.
Bavarian Film Awards
1979
8.0No synopsis available yet.
Deutscher Fernsehpreis
1999
No synopsis available yet.
West.art am Sonntag
2003
No synopsis available yet.
Bewegte Republik Deutschland
2014
No synopsis available yet.
Seven Songs
2017
Behind the camera
6.8Self-important author Leon joins his best friend on a summer holiday near the Baltic Sea to complete his novel. When they arrive, they find their house is already occupied by a carefree woman who challenges Leon to open up. Meanwhile, forest wildfires rage around them and impending disaster looms.
Afire
2023
6.8Self-important author Leon joins his best friend on a summer holiday near the Baltic Sea to complete his novel. When they arrive, they find their house is already occupied by a carefree woman who challenges Leon to open up. Meanwhile, forest wildfires rage around them and impending disaster looms.
Afire
2023
6.5Undine is a historian and tour guide at the Berlin City Museum specializing in urban development, while Christoph is an industrial diver. Linked by a love of the water, the two form an intense bond, which can only do so much to help Undine overcome the considerable baggage of her former affair.
Undine
2020
6.5Undine is a historian and tour guide at the Berlin City Museum specializing in urban development, while Christoph is an industrial diver. Linked by a love of the water, the two form an intense bond, which can only do so much to help Undine overcome the considerable baggage of her former affair.
Undine
2020
6.8In the aftermath of WWII, German-Jewish cabaret singer Nelly has to undergo facial reconstructive surgery following her survival from Auschwitz. Without recognising Nelly, her former husband Johnny asks her to help him claim his wife’s inheritance. To see if he's betrayed her, she agrees, becoming her own doppelgänger.
Phoenix
2014
6.8In the aftermath of WWII, German-Jewish cabaret singer Nelly has to undergo facial reconstructive surgery following her survival from Auschwitz. Without recognising Nelly, her former husband Johnny asks her to help him claim his wife’s inheritance. To see if he's betrayed her, she agrees, becoming her own doppelgänger.
Phoenix
2014
6.7In an attempt to flee Nazi-occupied France, Georg assumes the identity of a dead author but soon finds himself stuck in Marseilles, where he falls in love with Maria, a young woman searching for her missing husband.
Transit
2018
6.7In an attempt to flee Nazi-occupied France, Georg assumes the identity of a dead author but soon finds himself stuck in Marseilles, where he falls in love with Maria, a young woman searching for her missing husband.
Transit
2018
6.6After a car crash kills her boyfriend, piano student Laura is taken in by Betty, who witnessed the accident. Living with Betty's family brings comfort, but Laura starts questioning their intentions as time passes.
Miroirs No. 3
2025
6.6After a car crash kills her boyfriend, piano student Laura is taken in by Betty, who witnessed the accident. Living with Betty's family brings comfort, but Laura starts questioning their intentions as time passes.
Miroirs No. 3
2025
7.1Exiled to a rural clinic in 1980s East Germany for seeking an exit visa, a disillusioned doctor maintains a guarded distance from her colleagues, unsure if the kindly head physician is a genuine ally or a Stasi informant.
Barbara
2012
7.1Exiled to a rural clinic in 1980s East Germany for seeking an exit visa, a disillusioned doctor maintains a guarded distance from her colleagues, unsure if the kindly head physician is a genuine ally or a Stasi informant.
Barbara
2012
6.8Clara and Hans are left-wing terrorists who have been sought by police for almost fifteen years. Their increasingly rebellious daughter Jeanne begins to pose a threat to their security when she falls in love with a boy she meets on the beach.
The State I Am In
2001
6.8Clara and Hans are left-wing terrorists who have been sought by police for almost fifteen years. Their increasingly rebellious daughter Jeanne begins to pose a threat to their security when she falls in love with a boy she meets on the beach.
The State I Am In
2001
6.1Nina, a mentally ill teenage orphan, starts a new job as a garden cleaner when she meets Toni. They fall in love but soon Toni starts betraying Nina. Meanwhile, Francoise is picked up at a Berlin psychiatric hospital by her husband, Pierre. After spotting Nina, Francoise believes that she has found her kidnapped daughter Marie, but no one believes her.
Ghosts
2005
6.1Nina, a mentally ill teenage orphan, starts a new job as a garden cleaner when she meets Toni. They fall in love but soon Toni starts betraying Nina. Meanwhile, Francoise is picked up at a Berlin psychiatric hospital by her husband, Pierre. After spotting Nina, Francoise believes that she has found her kidnapped daughter Marie, but no one believes her.
Ghosts
2005
6.2A young East German woman leaves her controlling husband/business partner and relocates to a West German city to start anew as an accountant, but he soon catches up with her.
Yella
2007
6.2A young East German woman leaves her controlling husband/business partner and relocates to a West German city to start anew as an accountant, but he soon catches up with her.
Yella
2007
6.5In a small Northern German town, a dishonourably discharged Afghanistan veteran is offered a job as a deliveryman by an alcoholic Turkish entrepreneur, through which the former meets the latter's gorgeous wife.
Jerichow
2008
6.5In a small Northern German town, a dishonourably discharged Afghanistan veteran is offered a job as a deliveryman by an alcoholic Turkish entrepreneur, through which the former meets the latter's gorgeous wife.
Jerichow
2008
6.2Drifters tells of Karin, a past-her-prime cosmetics saleswoman, with her increasing exasperation with her life and her dreams of leaving it all behind and living in Paris. An unlikely but entertaining plot develops, where anything can happen.
Pilots
1995
6.2Drifters tells of Karin, a past-her-prime cosmetics saleswoman, with her increasing exasperation with her life and her dreams of leaving it all behind and living in Paris. An unlikely but entertaining plot develops, where anything can happen.
Pilots
1995
6.2Johannes is a loner who wants a better job. And then he meets Ana. Ana is attractive and even though her job is even less prestigious than Johannes's, he falls for her. And then she quits her job to be with him (and be dependent on him) and suddenly things become much more serious. She has fallen for him. But does he still love her? Did he ever? Enter Sarah. Sarah is the daughter of Johannes's boss. He and she have a past. Will Sarah and what she represents be his future, and Ana just a memory, something he'd like to erase?
Dreileben: Beats Being Dead
2011
6.2Johannes is a loner who wants a better job. And then he meets Ana. Ana is attractive and even though her job is even less prestigious than Johannes's, he falls for her. And then she quits her job to be with him (and be dependent on him) and suddenly things become much more serious. She has fallen for him. But does he still love her? Did he ever? Enter Sarah. Sarah is the daughter of Johannes's boss. He and she have a past. Will Sarah and what she represents be his future, and Ana just a memory, something he'd like to erase?
Dreileben: Beats Being Dead
2011
6.9Middle-aged lawyer Thomas meets Leyla at the pool. After their paths keep crossing, he asks her out on a date. Somewhat to his surprise she agrees. The next morning Thomas awakes to find Leyla and his laptop, which contains vital case files, missing.
Something to Remind Me
2002
6.9Middle-aged lawyer Thomas meets Leyla at the pool. After their paths keep crossing, he asks her out on a date. Somewhat to his surprise she agrees. The next morning Thomas awakes to find Leyla and his laptop, which contains vital case files, missing.
Something to Remind Me
2002
NRThe social democrats of the sixties and seventies worked on their grand plan to build a highway network in Germany that every German citizen could reach within five minutes of their home. The little film hangs around between and on the streets of this network - where the country discos, pedestrian zones, shopping centers, hospitals and roads home are behind noise barriers.
Broads
1989
NRThe social democrats of the sixties and seventies worked on their grand plan to build a highway network in Germany that every German citizen could reach within five minutes of their home. The little film hangs around between and on the streets of this network - where the country discos, pedestrian zones, shopping centers, hospitals and roads home are behind noise barriers.
Broads
1989
4.9A lonesome car. The wind is whistling. A door of an undefined building opens—is it a holiday bungalow, a shed or a ruin? A woman is standing at the window. The heat of an idle day of holiday, perhaps. The South, a place of longing.
South
1990
4.9A lonesome car. The wind is whistling. A door of an undefined building opens—is it a holiday bungalow, a shed or a ruin? A woman is standing at the window. The heat of an idle day of holiday, perhaps. The South, a place of longing.
South
1990
6.7Philipp Gerber is a smart, but self-satisfied car salesman. In an inattentive moment at the wheel of his car, he runs over a boy on a bike and, instead of helping him, he drives away. As he has feelings of guilt, he tries to find out more about the accident’s victim.
Wolfsburg
2003
6.7Philipp Gerber is a smart, but self-satisfied car salesman. In an inattentive moment at the wheel of his car, he runs over a boy on a bike and, instead of helping him, he drives away. As he has feelings of guilt, he tries to find out more about the accident’s victim.
Wolfsburg
2003
NRShort film made by a group of young directors in Berlin.
I'm Working Through Everything... Word of Honor!
1988
NR"Où en êtes-vous ?" (Where do you stand today?) is a project initiated by the Centre Pompidou, which commissions its guest filmmakers to make a free-form film in response to a question simultaneously retrospective, introspective and focused on their future ideas and projects. Here Christian Petzold is joined by Christoph Hochhäusler as they analyze a sequence from Hitchcock's The Wrong Man (1956) through a series of photograms. With this tribute to Harun Farocki, who died in 2014, Christian Petzold endeavors to revive and perpetuate the spirit, taste and methods of his former teacher and friend.
Where Do You Stand Today, Christian Petzold?
2017
NR"Où en êtes-vous ?" (Where do you stand today?) is a project initiated by the Centre Pompidou, which commissions its guest filmmakers to make a free-form film in response to a question simultaneously retrospective, introspective and focused on their future ideas and projects. Here Christian Petzold is joined by Christoph Hochhäusler as they analyze a sequence from Hitchcock's The Wrong Man (1956) through a series of photograms. With this tribute to Harun Farocki, who died in 2014, Christian Petzold endeavors to revive and perpetuate the spirit, taste and methods of his former teacher and friend.
Where Do You Stand Today, Christian Petzold?
2017
6.1Vera and Heike are two friends who aspire for a dazzling lifestyle, but don’t own any savings to do so. Vera decides to start stealing from men while sipping drinks with them in bars. When Heike takes over her job, her technique doesn’t prove as successful and she ends up being caught at once.
The Warm Money
1992
6.1Vera and Heike are two friends who aspire for a dazzling lifestyle, but don’t own any savings to do so. Vera decides to start stealing from men while sipping drinks with them in bars. When Heike takes over her job, her technique doesn’t prove as successful and she ends up being caught at once.
The Warm Money
1992
6.0Petra professionally works as a thief abroad to finance the studies of her younger sister Franziska in Germany.
The Sex Thief
1998
6.0Petra professionally works as a thief abroad to finance the studies of her younger sister Franziska in Germany.
The Sex Thief
1998
5.0Shortly after German reunification, three residents of a quiet area north of Berlin talk about their plans and attempts at new economic beginnings amid the changes brought by the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Eastward
1991
