All Lola Awards Winners for Scriptwriting

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 - Du bist es!"), which received the Audience Award at the Hamburg International Short Film Festival. His second short film, "Weed" ("Getürkt", 1996), received several national and international festival prizes. His first full length feature film, "Short Sharp Shock" ("Kurz und schmerzlos", 1998) won the Bronze Leopard at Locarno and the Bavarian Film Award (Best Young Director) in 1998. His other films include: "In July" ("Im Juli", 2000), "Wir haben vergessen zurückzukehren" (2001), "Solino" (2002), the Berlinale Golden Bear-winner and winner of the German and European Film Awards "Head-On" ("Gegen die Wand", 2003), and "Crossing the Bridge - The Sound of Istanbul" (2005).

Helmut Käutner was born on 25 March 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 20 April 1980 in Castellina in Chianti, Tuscany, Italy.

Jochen Huth was born on 24 May 1905 in Leipzig, Germany. He was a writer, known for As Long as You're Near Me (1953), Teufel in Seide (1956) and Ein hoffnungsloser Fall (1939). He died on 17 November 1984 in Minusio, Tessin, Switzerland.

Herbert Reinecker was born on 24 December 1914 in Hagen, Westphalia, Germany. He was a writer, known for Der Kommissar (1969), Deadly Decision (1954) and Wer erschoß Boro? (1987). He was married to Brunhilde 'Holly' Reinecker and Angela Schmikowski. He died on 27 January 2007 in Kempfenhausen, Bavaria, Germany.

Werner Jörg Lüddecke was born on 10 June 1912 in Hannover, Germany. He was a writer and actor, known for The Devil Strikes at Night (1957), The Plot to Assassinate Hitler (1955) and The Tiger of Eschnapur (1959). He died on 10 May 1986 in Ascona, Switzerland.

Lars Kraume was born on 24 February 1973 in Chieri, Piedmont, Italy. He is a director and writer, known for The People Vs. Fritz Bauer (2015), The Silent Revolution (2018) and Tatort (1970). He is married to Lena Kiessler. They have two children.

Werner Enke was born on 25 April 1941 in Berlin, Germany. He is an actor and writer, known for Go for It, Baby (1968), Nicht fummeln, Liebling! (1970) and A Degree of Murder (1967). He is married to May Spils.

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 studies at the New School of Social Research in New York. She also worked in cafés and as a projectionist in the Goethe House in New York. In 1975 she returned to Germany. She then studied at the University of Television and Film in Munich. At the same time, she worked as a film critic journalist for the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Her final film is entitled "The First Waltz" and was broadcast on Bavarian television as "Max and Sandie". Doris Dörrie made various documentaries until 1982. In 1983 she made her first feature film in Munich called "Mitten ins Herz". Three years later she had a cinema hit with the title "Men". The well-known actors Uwe Ochsenknecht and Heiner Lauterbach star in the chaotic relationship comedy. The play became the most successful German film of 1986. Doris Dörrie was married to Helge Weindler from 1988 to 1996. Their daughter Carla was born in 1990.

In 1991 she had another cinema success with the title "Happy Birthday, Turk". She filmed the novel by the German writer Jakob Arjouni, a novel in the Kayankaya series. The witty film is in the tradition of classic detective films and tells the story of the search for a missing person in the Frankfurt milieu. The Turkish private detective Kayankaya, played by Hansa Czypionka, experiences police corruption. In 1994, Doris Dörrie shot the comedy film "Nobody Loves Me" with Maria Schrader. This production is about personal happiness. The work was honored with the silver film ribbon, the leading actress Maria Schrader with the gold film ribbon.

Her other film works include "No Trace of Romanticism" from 1980, "Between" from 1981, "Love in Germany" from 1989 and "Enlightenment Guaranteed" from 1999. Among all her film works The director also wrote the script herself. The films were often cast with well-known actors such as Senta Berger, Gottfried John or Uwe Ochsenknecht. She also shot the documentary entitled "What can it be?" In addition to her role behind the camera, she also performed guest roles in front of the camera. For example, she played in the film "The Leading Man" from 1977 or in "King Kong's Fist" and in "Back to Go" from 2000.

In addition to her film work, Doris Dörrie realized literary projects. This is how the short stories entitled "Love, Pain and All the Damned Stuff" and "What Do You Want from Me?" were created. She also wrote the short story "The Man of My Dreams" and the novel "What Do We Do Now?" In 1991 her collection of short stories entitled "Forever and Ever" was created. The 300-page work was well received by critics. In 2002 her film work entitled "Naked" and her novel "Happy" followed. In 2005 she staged Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Rigoletto" at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich under the musical direction of Zubin Mehta.

In the same year, 2005, she directed Giacomo Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" at the Gärtnerplatztheater. At the Salzburg Festival in 2006 she staged Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "La finta Giardiniera".

May Spils was born on 29 July 1941 in Twistringen [now Lower Saxony], Germany. She is a director and actress, known for Go for It, Baby (1968), Nicht fummeln, Liebling! (1970) and Manöver (1966). She is married to Werner Enke.

Ruth Toma was born in 1956 in Bad Kötzting, Bavaria, Germany. She is a writer, known for Emmas Glück (2006), Gloomy Sunday (1999) and Solino (2002).

Hark Bohm was born on 18 May 1939 in Hamburg, Germany. He is an actor and writer, known for In the Fade (2017), Yasemin (1988) and Chetan, Indian Boy (1973). He is married to Natalia Bowakow. They have six children. He was previously married to Angela Luther.

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 cinema, Haneke wrote and directed films in several languages: French, German and English, working with a great variety of actors, such as Juliette Binoche, Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Toby Jones, Ülrich Muhe, Arno Frisch and the list goes on.

This grand figure from Austrian cinema was born in Germany on 23 March 1942, from a German father and an Austrian mother, with both parents being from the artistic world working as actors, a career that Michael also tried but without much success. At the University of Vienna he studied drama, philosophy and psychology, and after graduation he went on to become a film critic and TV editor. His career behind camera started with After Liverpool (1974), which he wrote and directed. He went on to direct five more TV films and two episodes from the miniseries "Lemminge" (1979)_.

The years spent on television works prompted him to finally direct his first cinema feature, during his early 40's, which is somewhat unusual for film directors. But it was worth waiting. In The Seventh Continent (1989), Haneke establishes the foundation of what his future cinema would be about: a cinema that doesn't provides answers but one that dares to throw more and more questions, a cinema that reflects and analyses the human condition in its darkest and unexpected ways outside of any Hollywood formula. Films that exist to confront audiences and not comfort them. In it, Haneke deals with the duality of social values vs. internal values while exposing an apparent perfect family that runs into physical and material disintegration for reasons unknown. It was the first time a film of his was sent to the Cannes Film Festival (out of competition lineup) but he managed to cause some commotion in the audience with polemic scenes that were meant to extract all possible reactions from the crowd.

His next ventures at the decade's turn was in dealing with disturbed youth and the alienation they have in separating reality from fiction, trying to intersect both to drastic results. In Benny's Video (1992), it's the disturbing story of a teen boy who experiences killing for the first time capturing the murder on tape, impressed by the power of detachment that films and videos can cause to people; and later on the highly controversial Funny Games (1997), where two teens hold a family hostage to play sadistic games just for their own sick amusement. The film cemented Haneke's name as one of the greatest authors of his generation but sparkled a great debate with its themes of violence, sadism and the influence those things have in audiences. At the 1997's Cannes Film Festival, it was the film that had the most walk-out's by the audience. In between both films, he released 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance (1994) and Kafka's The Castle (1997), the latter being one of the rare times when Haneke developed an adapted work.

In the 2000's, he strongly continued in producing more outstanding works prone to debate and reflection in what would become his most prolific decade with the following films: Code Unknown (2000), The Piano Teacher (2001), Time of the Wolf (2003), Caché (2005), an American remake shot-by shot of Funny Games (2007) and The White Ribbon (2009). His study about romance versus masochism in The Piano Teacher (2001) was an intense work, with powerful performances by Isabelle Huppert and Benoit Magimel, that the Cannes jury in the year were so impressed that Haneke managed to actually reverse their award rules where it was decided that film entries at the festival couldn't win more than one main award (the two lead actors won awards and Haneke got the Grand Prize of the Jury, just lost the Palme d'Or). With The White Ribbon (2009), an enigmatic black-and-white masterpiece following the inception of Nazism in this pre WWI and WWII story focusing on repressed children living in this small village where strange events happen all the time and without any possible reasoning, Haneke conquered the world and audiences with an artistic and daring work that won his first Palme d'Or a Golden Globe as Best Foreign Language Film and received an Oscar nomination for the same category plus the cinematography work of Christian Berger.

2012 was the year that marked his supremacy in the film world with the release of the bold and beautiful Amour (2012), a love story with powerful real drama and one where Haneke removed most of his usual dark characteristics to present more quiet and calm elements without losing input in creating controversy. The touching story of George and Anne provided one the greatest moments of that year and earned Haneke his second and consecutive Palme d'Or at Cannes and his first Oscar nominations for Best Direction and Best Original Screenplay - and it was one of the several nominees for Best Picture Oscar, winning as Best Foreign Language Film.

After abandoning a flash-mob film project, he returned to the screen with Happy End (2017), a film dealing with the refugee crisis in Europe and again he debuted his film at Cannes, receiving mildly positive reviews.

Besides his film work, Haneke also directs theatre productions, from drama to opera, from Così fan tutte to Don Giovanni.

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 even antigay, he completed 44 projects between 1966 and 1982, the majority of which can be characterized as highly intelligent social melodramas. His prodigious output was matched by a wild, self-destructive libertinage that earned him a reputation as the enfant terrible of the New German Cinema (as well as its central figure.) Known for his trademark leather jacket and grungy appearance, Fassbinder cruised the bar scene by night, looking for sex and drugs, yet he maintained a flawless work ethic by day. Actors and actresses recount disturbing stories of his brutality toward them, yet his pictures demonstrate his deep sensitivity to social misfits and his hatred of institutionalized violence. Some find his cinema needlessly controversial and avant-garde; others accuse him of surrendering to the Hollywood ethos. It is best said that he drew forth strong emotional reactions from all he encountered, both in his personal and professional lives, and this provocative nature can be experienced posthumously through reviewing his artistic legacy.

Fassbinder was born into a bourgeois Bavarian family in 1945. His father was a doctor and his mother a translator. In order to have time for her work, his mother frequently sent him the movies, a practice that gave birth to his obsession with the medium. Later in life, he would claim that he saw a film nearly every day and sometimes as many as three or four. At the age of 15, Fassbinder defiantly declared his homosexuality, soon after which he left school and took a job. He studied theater in the mid-sixties at the Fridl-Leonhard Studio in Munich and joined the Action Theater (aka, Anti-Theater) in 1967. Unlike the other major auteurs of the New German Cinema (e.g., Schlöndorff, Herzog and Wenders) who started out making movies, Fassbinder acquired an extensive stage background that is evident throughout his work. Additionally, he learned how to handle all phases of production, from writing and acting to direction and theater management. This versatility later surfaced in his films where, in addition to some of the aforementioned responsibilities, Fassbinder served as composer, production designer, cinematographer, producer and editor. [So boundless was his energy, in fact, that he appeared in 30 projects of other directors.] In his theater years, he also developed a repertory company that included his mother, two of his wives and various male and female lovers. Coupled with his ability to serve in nearly any crew capacity, this gave him the ability to produce his films quickly and on extremely low budgets.

Success was not immediate for Fassbinder. His first feature length film, a gangster movie called Love Is Colder Than Death (1969) was greeted by catcalls at the Berlin Film Festival. His next piece, Katzelmacher (1969), was a minor critical success, garnering five prizes after its debut at Mannheim. It featured Jorgos, an emigrant from Greece, who encounters violent xenophobic slackers in moving into an all-German neighborhood. This kind of social criticism, featuring alienated characters unable to escape the forces of oppression, is a constant throughout Fassbinder's diverse oeuvre. In subsequent years, he made such controversial films about human savagery such as Pioneers in Ingolstadt (1971) and Whity (1971) before scoring his first domestic commercial success with The Merchant of Four Seasons (1972). This moving portrait of a street vendor crushed by the betrayal and his own futility is considered a masterpiece, as is his first international success Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974) (Fear Eats the Soul). With a wider audience for his efforts, however, some critics contend that Fassbinder began to sell out with big budget projects such as Despair (1978), Lili Marleen (1981) and Lola (1981). In retrospect, however, it seems that the added fame simply enabled Fassbinder to explore various kinds of filmmaking, including such "private" works as In a Year with 13 Moons (1978) and The Third Generation (1979), two films about individual experience and feelings. His greatest success came with The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979) (The Marriage of Maria Braun), chronicling the rise and fall of a German woman in the wake of World War II. Other notable movies include The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972), Fox and His Friends (1975), Satan's Brew (1976) and Querelle (1982), all focused on gay and lesbian themes and frequently with a strongly pornographic edge.

His death is a perfect picture of the man and his legend. On the night of June 10, 1982, Fassbinder took an overdose of cocaine and sleeping pills. When he was found, the unfinished script for a version of Rosa Luxemburg was lying next to him. So boundless was his drive and creativity that, throughout his downward spiral and even in the moment of his death, Fassbinder never ceased to be productive.

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 and Eberhard Junkersdorf in 1973. Has directed several operas in Frankfurt a/M, Berlin (Germany) and Paris, France. Since 1992 chief executive of the german production company Sudio Babelsberg GmbH (former UFA/DEFA).

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 job as a Russian teacher. From 1993 to 1996 he studied PPE philosophy, political science and economics at New College, Oxford. In 1996 he completed a directing internship with Richard Attenborough. In 1997 he began studying feature film directing at the University of Television and Film in Munich. The four-minute short film "Dobermann" was made in 1999, for which he also wrote the book. The work received the rating "Particularly Valuable" and became part of the "Next Generation Role" of "German Cinema in Cannes". At the same time, the work marked his national breakthrough with numerous awards, including the Max Ophüls Prize in 2000.

This was followed by a commissioned work for Universal and Gaumont TV, "Les Mythes Urbains" from 2001. In 2002, he directed the short film "The Templar" in collaboration with producers Max Wiedemann and Quirin Berg. Awarded as "particularly valuable", the five-minute film was shown as part of the Hof Film Festival. The work was awarded, among other things, the Eastman Prize and the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Prize in 2003. Henckel von Donnersmarck became a German star of international cinema with his first feature film "The Lives of Others". In 2006 he was awarded the "Bavarian Film Prize", the "European Film Prize", the "Peace Prize for German Film", the "Quadriga Prize" and a nomination for the "Golden Globe".

On February 25, 2007, "The Lives of Others" was awarded the "Oscar" for "Best Foreign Language Film" at the 79th Academy Awards in Los Angeles, which also marked his international breakthrough as a filmmaker. In 2010 he directed his second feature film, the romantic thriller "The Tourist", starring Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp.

In his private life, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck is married to the lawyer Christiane Asschenfeldt and is the father of two children.

Dani Levy was born on 17 November 1957 in Basel, Switzerland. He is a director and writer, known for Go for Zucker (2004), Silent Night (1996) and Tatort (1970). He is married to Sabine Lidl. They have two children.

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 stage in 1954. He assisted (camera, editing, production) in several films during mid-50ies, became script adviser in the educational film production company 'Gesellschaft fur bildende Filme (GBF)' in 1957. He started directing his own short documentaries, industrial films, and short films in 1959. In the same year, Edgar Reitz, Herbert Vesely, Haro Senft, Raimund Ruehl, and Franz-Josef Spieker founded 'Doc 59' aka 'Münchener Gruppe' which prepared the 'Oberhausener Manifest' of 1962. From 1962-65, Reitz directed a department at the 'Insel-Film' production company. In 1963, Edgar Reitz and Alexander Kluge initiated the foundation of the film department at 'Hochschule fur Gestaltung' (College for Design) in Ulm. Reitz' first feature, Table for Love (1967), is among the many debuts in the aftermath of the Oberhausener Manifest which shaped the term 'New German Cinema'.

Michael Alexander Verhoeven (* 13 July 1938; + 22 April 2024) was a German actor, screenwriter, film director, and producer. He achieved international success with films such as The White Rose (1982) and The Nasty Girl (1990).

Michael Verhoeven grew up in Berlin and later Munich. Being the son of actress Doris Kiesow (1902-1973) and actor-director Paul Verhoeven (1901-1975), his creative abilities were nurtured from a very young age. Verhoeven began his artistic career as a nine-year-old in theatre plays - including a stage adaptation of "Dot and Anton" (Pünktchen und Anton) after author Erich Kästner, a family friend - and subsequently appeared in various films in the 1950s.

As a young adult, he briefly wandered off the creative path and studied medicine - a bold move his parents did not agree with. Especially his father whose creative abilities included years working as artistic director at the Residenz Theatre in Munich opposed his son's decision. Verhoeven however persevered. He obtained his doctorate in 1969 and worked as a doctor for several years. Nevertheless, his passion for filmmaking never fully disappeared, eventually leading him back to the director's chair.

Throughout his career, Verhoeven often collaborated with his wife, actress Senta Berger, whom he had met at the Berlinale in 1960. These collaborations included the series Die schnelle Gerdi (1989) about a Munich taxi driver, the miniseries Lilli Lottofee (1992), and the 2008 documentary Menschliches Versagen (2008). In 1965, they established Sentana Film and were later joined professionally by their sons and fellow filmmakers, Simon Verhoeven and Luca Verhoeven.

In 1972, after becoming a father for the first time, Verhoeven began to work on a children's series. He wrote and directed the anarchic Krempoli - Ein Platz für wilde Kinder (1975), in which he had a guest appearance. He also cast his father Paul Verhoeven and his sister Lis Verhoeven alongside his wife Senta Berger.

Through his work, Verhoeven often tackled political subjects and confronted historical injustices. His anti-Vietnam War film O.K. (1970) caused a major scandal at the 1970 Berlinale and eventually led to the competition being canceled. The Berlinale regulations were subsequently reformed, the Forum came into being, and O.K. (1970) went on to win the Gold Award for Best Feature Film at the German Film Awards. His repertoire of politically motivated films also included The White Rose (1982) about the Scholl siblings, which among other accolades won the Silver Award for Best Feature Film at the German Film Awards and, more recently, the documentary The Second Execution of Romell Broom (2012).

The Nasty Girl (1990), written and directed by Verhoeven, earned an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film in 1991. The film, based on the true story of a young woman who investigates her town's involvement in the Third Reich, also won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlinale, the BAFTA for Best Foreign Language Film and the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

In 1995, he directed My Mother's Courage (1995) about the deportation of 4000 Jews from Budapest to Auschwitz in July 1944. The film is based on the autobiographical play by George Tabori, who played himself. My Mother's Courage (1995) won the Silver Award for Best Feature Film at the German Film Awards, The Jewish Experience Award at the Jerusalem Film Festival, Best Feature at The Chicago International Film Festival, and more. Later, in 2000, Verhoeven wrote and directed the television film Enthüllung einer Ehe (2000), which dealt with the topic of transgender identities - still a taboo subject at the time. He won the Robert Geisendörfer Prize and two FIPAs at the Festival International de Programmes Audiovisuels in Biarritz. Then in 2014, Verhoeven wrote and directed the TV drama Let's Go! (2014), which was adapted from the autobiographical novel Von Zuhause wird nichts erzählt by Laura Waco about her Jewish family in post-war Munich and won a German Television Academy Award. The 2016 production Welcome to Germany (2016), which he co-produced with his son Simon Verhoeven, became the most successful German film of that year, won numerous awards, and was recognized Europe-wide.

Together with his wife Senta Berger, he was honored with the Federal Cross of Merit in 1999 and the Bavarian Order of Merit in 2002. In 2005, Verhoeven was awarded the Marion Samuel Prize, which honors particularly effective ways of combating the forgetting, suppression, and relativization of the crimes committed by Germans during the National Socialist era.

In the 1990s, he became a professor at the Baden-Württemberg Film Academy in Ludwigsburg, where he dedicated himself to nurturing and shaping the next generation of filmmakers. Verhoeven was also one of the founding members of the German Film Academy in 2003.

Hans-Jürgen Syberberg was born on 8 December 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).

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 later co-produce, amongst others, The Whistlers (2019), Spencer (2021), About Dry Grasses (2023) and Maria (2024). After two shorts in 2000 and 2001 made under the auspices of her film school, she co-produced, wrote and and directed Der Wald vor lauter Bäumen (2003), her first feature. A grueling drama about the difficult beginnings of a new teacher, the movie impressed both audiences and critics. Incidentally, it is of interest to specify that its school scenes were entirely shot within the walls of the educational institution where her mother was teaching at the time. This promising effort was followed six years later by Everyone Else (2009), which although taking place in a totally different setting (the Sardinian seaside in the glory of Summer) also concerns characters unsure of themselves. A taut drama as well, it revolves around two holiday making newly married couples and describes in a Roman Polanski-like manner the wicked relationships they share. But her greatest success came in 2015 and 2016 with Toni Erdmann (2016), an offbeat comedy with a philosophical approach, which enthused the festival-goers at Cannes, allegedly making them "roar with laughter", and later making an unexpected profit in art houses throughout the world. And it is true that a father playing dirty tricks on his daughter (meant to make her realize she is wasting her life) is no ordinary entertainment. As a matter of fact, after only three full-length movies to her credit, Maren Ade has become a name that counts in today's German cinema.

Handke spent part of his childhood in Carinthia and Berlin. He stayed in Tanzenberg as a boarding school student. In 1961, Handke completed his high school diploma in Klagenfurt. After school he began studying law in Graz. There he got to know the Graz group "Forum Stadtpark". This was followed by publications of prose texts and work on radio. His first novel "The Hornets" was published in 1966. Handke dropped out of his studies. Since then he has lived as a professional writer. Handke changed his residence between Germany, Austria and France. He has lived in Chaville near Paris since 1991. Handke played a key role in the discussion about the war in Kosovo and the dissolution of Yugoslavia. His political opinion on this sparked a public, controversial discussion. Peter Handke's early work is dedicated to language-critical considerations, including Berthold Brecht and contemporary playwrights.

He also commented on this at a meeting of "Group 47" in 1966. His most important thematic work is "Kaspar" (1968). The title already refers to the foundling Kaspar Hauser. In this work, Handke draws attention to the determinability and influence of language. In other works, Handke also turned critically to the conventionalized ways of perceiving and experiencing through language. He demanded that literature dissolve conventionalized meanings. He denied this ability to descriptive literature with its claim to realism. From 1969 to 1970 Handke lived in Paris. He then returned to Germany. In his story "The Goalkeeper's Fear of the Penalty Kick" (1970), Handke himself used traditional narrative methods and broke away from the abstract nature of his reflective work on language and storytelling. Nevertheless, the piece is about perception influenced by language.

In his subsequent story "The Short Letter to the Long Farewell" (1972) begins a thematic series about the relationship between the self and the world and the individual self-discovery process. These thematic works include titles such as "Wishless Misfortune" (1972), "The Hour of True Sensation" (1975) or "The Left-Handed Woman" (1976), some of which are interspersed with autobiographical parts. Some of these works have a high level of writing style or mythicization, which gives them a special quality - for example the works "Long Homecoming" (1979), "The Teaching of Sainte-Victoire" (1980), "Children's Story" (1981) and "About the villages. Dramatic poem" (1981) of the tetralogy "Long Homecoming". Peter Handke reflects on writing in his short story "The Repetition" (1986) and in other works. His most extensive work is entitled "My Year in Nobody's Bay. A Fairy Tale from the New Times" (1994). In it, the writer describes the creation of the work "My Year in Nobody's Bay. A fairy tale from the new time". But themes and scenes from Handke's earlier work are also repeatedly included.

The title "On a dark night I left my quiet house" (1997) also contains a review of Handke's activities. His other works include "Audience Insults and Other Speech Pieces" (1966), "The Peddler" (1967), "The Inner World of the Outer World of the Inner World" (1969), "Chronicle of Current Events" (1971), "The Edge of Words, Stories, Poems, Pieces" (1975), and "The Weight of the World. A Journal" from 1977. Works such as "The Story of the Pencil" (1982), "Afternoon of a Writer" followed in the 1980s. (1987), "The hour when we knew nothing about each other" (1992), "A winter journey to the rivers Danube, Sava Morawa and Drina or Justice for Serbia" (1996), "Lucie in the forest with the Thingsda" (1999) or "Questioning through tears. Subsequent notes from two wartime crossings of Yugoslavia, March and April 1999" (2000). Literary critics discuss the author Peter Handke and his works controversially. The spectrum of judgment extends from admiration to polemic. On the one hand, his literary individualism and the precision of his linguistic expression are praised, but on the other hand, there are accusations of being unrealistic and of false pathos.

In 2004, Handke visited Slobodan Milosevic in prison in The Hague, which once again sparked critical discussions in the media. He also appeared as a speaker at Milosevic's funeral on March 18, 2006. In May 2006, the renowned Comédie Française in Paris removed Handke's play "Game of Questions" from its program. Meanwhile, there were numerous arguments because Handke was nominated for the Heinrich Heine Prize. On June 8, 2006, he announced his renunciation of the literature prize, which was endowed with 50,000 euros. At the time of its founding, Handke declared that he did not want to see his person or his work continue to be exposed to the "harassment" of local politicians. Handke's award, which was decided by the jury and questioned again by the Düsseldorf city council, was heavily criticized internationally because of his advocacy for Serbian politics and his participation in the funeral of the former ruler Slobodan Milosevic.

In 2018, Handke received the Nestroy Theater Prize for his life's work and in 2019 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Directed his first movie at the age of 21. Studied at the 'Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie' (DFFB) til 1989. Founded the Boje Buck Filmproduktion in 1991. Founded the Boje Buck Produktion GmbH together with Claus Boje in 1992.

David Wnendt was born in 1977 in Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He is a director and writer, known for Look Who's Back (2015), Combat Girls (2011) and Sun and Concrete (2023).

Born in 1978 in Hagen, North Rhine-Westphalia. In 2000, Jan-Ole Gerstner moved to Berlin, where he did an internship at the production company "X-Films Creative Pool" ("Run Lola Run", "The White Ribbon"). He then became Wolfgang Becker's personal assistant in the production of "Good Bye, Lenin!" Gerster began his studies in writing and directing in 2003 at the German Film and Television Academy in Berlin. During his studies he directed several short films and co-wrote with Wolfgang Becker the script of the "Krankes Haus" episode for the collective film "Deutschland 09". His first film "Oh Boy" was an unexpected success at the German box office. He also won numerous awards, are six Lola (the German equivalent of the Oscars). His second feature film, "Lara", a remarkable psychological study which, like "Oh Boy" is set over a 24-hour period, also won numerous awards, including the well-deserved Best Actress Award for Corinna Harfouch.

Yasemin Samdereli was born on 15 July 1973 in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. She is a director and writer, known for Almanya: Welcome to Germany (2011), Samia (2024) and Who Am I? (1998).