Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
von Donnersmarck in 2015
Born	Florian Maria Georg Christian Graf Henckel von Donnersmarck (1973-05-02) 2 May 1973 (age 46) Cologne, West Germany (present-day Cologne, Germany)
Occupation	Film director
Years active	1996-present
	Christiane Asschenfeldt
Children	3

Florian Maria Georg Christian Graf Henckel von Donnersmarck^[1] (born 2 May 1973) is a German film director, best known for writing and directing the 2006 Oscar-winning dramatic thriller The Lives of Others, the 2010 three time Golden Globe nominated romantic thriller The Tourist starring Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp, and the two-time Oscar-nominated 2018 epic drama Never Look Away.

Early years

Donnersmarck was born in 1973 in Cologne, West Germany, into the aristocratic Roman Catholic Henckel von Donnersmarck family, and grew up in New York City, Brussels, Frankfurt, and West Berlin. He is fluent in English, German, French, Russian, and Italian. After graduating at the top of his class from the German section of the European School of Brussels I, he studied Russian literature in St. Petersburg for two years and passed the State Exam for Teachers of Russian as a Foreign Language. He holds a Master of Arts degree in Philosophy, politics and economics at New College, Oxford, and a diploma in Film Directing from the University of Television and Film Munich.^[2]

Family

The younger son of Leo-Ferdinand, Count Henckel von Donnersmarck, a former president of the German division of the Order of Malta, and literary scout Anna Maria von Berg, Henckel von Donnersmarck holds German and Austrian citizenships. His father's only brother, Gregor Henckel-Donnersmarck, is the emeritus abbot at Heiligenkreuz Abbey, a Cistercian monastery in the Vienna Woods where Florian spent a month writing the first draft of The Lives of Others (German: Das Leben der Anderen).^[3]

Henckel von Donnersmarck is married to Christiane Asschenfeldt, the first International Executive Director of Creative Commons. They have three children and currently live in Los Angeles.^[4] He stands 2.10 m (almost 6 ft 11 in) tall.

Career

In 1977, while living as a child in New York, he saw his first movie at the Museum of Modern Art. He expected to see Doctor Dolittle but was "exposed instead to" the German melodrama Varieté. He cites this experience as the start of his interest in film.^[5]

In 1996, he won a directing apprenticeship with Richard Attenborough on In Love and War, and then went to study at the Fiction Directing Class of the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München (University of Television and Film Munich), Germany, alma mater of directors as diverse as Wim Wenders, Roland Emmerich and Maren Ade, who was Donnersmarck's classmate. His first short film, Dobermann (which he wrote, produced, directed and edited), broke the school record for the number of awards won by a student production. It became an international festival sensation, and Donnersmarck travelled the festival circuit for over a year.^[6][7]

His first feature film Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others), which Donnersmarck spent three years writing, directing and completing, won the European Film Award for Best Film, Best Actor and Best Screenplay in 2006. Donnersmarck won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association's award for Best Foreign Film, was nominated for the Golden Globe (which went to Clint Eastwood instead), and on 25 February 2007 won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.^[8] In 2007, Donnersmarck was one of 115 new members to be invited to join AMPAS.^[9]

His next film, The Tourist, which Donnersmarck re-wrote, directed and completed in under 11 months (telling Charlie Rose he had wanted a break from writing a dark screenplay about suicide), was a thriller starring Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp. The film was nominated for three Golden Globes: Best Musical or Comedy, Depp for Actor Musical or Comedy and Jolie for Actress Musical or Comedy.^[10][11] It also won three Teen Choice Awards nominations (Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress) of which it won two. The film opened to middling number, but eventually ended up grossing US$278.3 million at the worldwide box office,^[12] prompting The Hollywood Reporter belatedly to proclaim it an "international hit".^[13]

In 2019, his third feature film Never Look Away was nominated for the Golden Lion at the 75th Venice International Film Festival, for a Golden Globe by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and for two Oscars in the Best Foreign Language Film and Best Cinematography categories at the 91st Academy Awards.^[14] This was only the second time in history that a German language film by a German director was nominated for an Oscar in multiple categories, the other film being Wolfgang Petersen's Das Boot 36 years prior. It became one of only 16 German language features since the end of WW2 to surpass one million euros at the North American box office^[15]. He is the only director who has 2 films in that list. In the Netherlands, one of the first countries to release the movies outside of Germany, Never Look Away became the most successful German language film since The Lives of Others^[16][17].

Influence

In a 2010 interview with The Guardian, director Howard Davies named Donnersmarck as the artist he most admired.^[18]

René Pollesch wrote a play, L'Affaire Martin!, which poked fun at von Donnersmarck. According to Pollesch, the director's parents attended a performance and came backstage to say they liked it.^[19]

After meeting him at the Davos World Economic Forum, Jay Nordlinger, writing for the National Review, described Donnersmarck as "one of the most impressive people on the planet".^[20]

The Europe List, a largest survey on European culture, named Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others second on a list of the best films in European culture.^[21]

Honours

Commander of the Bavarian Order of Merit

Commander of the North Rhine-Westphalian Order of Merit

Voting Member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

In 2011, Donnersmarck was honoured by the University of Oxford, his alma mater, as one of its 100 most distinguished members from 10 centuries. The university named 100 streets in Oxford's historical centre after these graduates, with Upper Oxpens Road renamed for Donnersmarck.^[22]

Selected awards and nominations

• 2019 - Winner - Audience Award - Miami Jewish Film Festival for Never Look Away
• 2019 - Winner - Best Picture - Tournai Ramdam Festival for Never Look Away
• 2019 - Winner - Audience Award - Aspen Film 27th Academy Screenings for Never Look Away
• 2018 - Winner - Audience Award - Leiden Film Festival for Never Look Away
• 2018 - Winner - Leoncino d'Oro for Best Picture - Venice Film Festival for Never Look Away
• 2018 - Winner - Young Cinema Award for Best Picture - Venice Film Festival for Never Look Away
• 2013 - Named Young Global Leader by the Davos World Economic Forum
• 2011 - 2 Teen Choice Award wins for The Tourist
• 2011 - 3 Teen Choice Award nominations for The Tourist
• 2011 - 3 Golden Globe nominations for The Tourist
• 2009 - Dante Alighieri Society Gold Medal of Merit
• 2008 - 4 BAFTA nominations for The Lives of Others
• 2008 - César Award for The Lives of Others
• 2007 - Academy Award for The Lives of Others
• 2007 - New York Film Critics Circle Award for The Lives of Others
• 2006 - 2 European Film Awards for The Lives of Others
  • Best Film
  • Best Screenplay
• 2006 - Deutscher Filmpreis (German Film Award) for The Lives of Others
  • Best Direction
  • Best Screenplay
• 2006 - Screenwriter Award within the Cologne Conference
• 2003 - Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation Award for Best Short Film for The Crusader
• 2002 - Eastman Award at the Hof International Film Festival for The Crusader (shared with Sebastian Henckel von Donnersmarck)
• 2000 - Universal Studios' Shocking Shorts Award for Dobermann
• 2000 - Max Ophüls Preis for Dobermann

Filmography

• Mitternacht (1997) (short film)
• Das Datum (1998) (short film)
• Dobermann (1999) (short film)
• Der Templer (2002) (short film)
• The Lives of Others (2006) (writer, director, co-producer)
• The Tourist (2010) (writer, director)
• Never Look Away (2018)

References

Further reading

• Cooke, Paul (2013). The Lives of Others and Contemporary German Film: A Companion. Walter De Gruyter Incorporated. ISBN 978-3110268102.
• von Donnersmarck, Florian Henckel (2006). Das Leben der anderen. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. ISBN 3-518-45786-1.
• von Donnersmarck, Florian Henckel (2007). Das Leben der anderen. Geschwärzte Ausgabe. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. ISBN 3-518-45908-2.
• Nagel, Daniela (2008). Das Drehbuch - ein Drama für die Leinwand? Drehbuchanalyse am Beispiel von Florian Henckel von Donnersmarcks "Das Leben der anderen". Tectum Verlag. ISBN 978-3828897243.
• A list of publications, including many articles

External links

• Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck on IMDb
• Biography and Interview Archived 5 September 2006 at the Wayback Machine in German Films Quarterly
• photographs of Donnersmarck on official site
• Interview Archived 10 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine in indieWIRE
• Interview, by Charlie Rose, aired 2010-12-07, with transcript.
• The Lives Of Others Interview 5 April 2008 at Future Movies