Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Born	Florian Maria Georg Christian, Graf Henckel von Donnersmarck (1973-05-02) 2 May 1973 Cologne, West Germany
Years active	1996 – present
Spouse	Christiane Asschenfeldt

Florian Maria Georg Christian, Graf Henckel von Donnersmarck (born May 2, 1973) is a German film director, best known for writing and directing the 2007 Oscar-winning film, The Lives of Others, and the 2010 film, The Tourist.

Personal life and family

He was born in Cologne, Germany, into the noble family Henckel von Donnersmarck and grew up in New York, Brussels, Frankfurt, and West Berlin. He is fluent in English, German, French, Russian, and Italian. After graduating from high school at the top of his class, he studied Russian literature in Leningrad for two years and passed the Soviet State Exam for Teachers of Russian as a Foreign Language. Florian holds an MA Oxon from his studies in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Oxford University (New College). He holds a diploma in Film Directing from the University of Television and Film in Munich.

He is the younger son of Leo-Ferdinand Graf Henckel von Donnersmarck, a former president of the German division of the Order of Malta, and Anna Maria von Berg. He holds German and Austrian citizenship. His uncle, 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).

Henckel von Donnersmarck is married to Christiane Asschenfeldt, the former International Executive Director of Creative Commons. They have three children: Lara Cosima (born in 2003), Leo Sylvester (born in 2005) and Alexis Jaguar (born in 2007). They currently live in Los Angeles. He stands 6'8" tall.

Career

While living as a child for a while in New York, at the age of 4, von Donnersmarck saw his first movie at the Museum of Modern Art. He expected to see Doctor Doolittle but was "exposed instead to" the German melodrama Varieté. "He cites this experience as the start of his interest in film."

In 1996, he won a directing internship 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 and Roland Emmerich.

His first short film, Dobermann (which Donnersmarck 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.

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. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck went on to win 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.

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 romantic thriller starring Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp. It was met with widely negative reviews. but received three Golden Globe nominations (Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Actress in a Leading Role), three Teen Choice Awards nominations (Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress) of which it won two and has so far grossed US$ 278.3 million at the world wide box office., prompting The Hollywood Reporter belatedly to proclaim it an "international hit".

In 2007, Henckel von Donnersmarck was one of 115 new members to be invited to join AMPAS.

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)

Selected Awards and Nominations

• 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
• 2000 – Universal Studios' Shocking Shorts Award for Dobermann
• 2000 – Max Ophüls Preis for Dobermann

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

Further reading

• Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck: Das Leben der anderen. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-518-45786-1
• Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck: Das Leben der anderen. Geschwärzte Ausgabe. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 3-518-45908-2

See also

• Henckel von Donnersmarck family line

External links

• Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck at IMDb
• Biography and Interview Template:Wayback in German Films Quarterly
• photographs of Donnersmarck on official site
• Interview Template:Wayback in indieWIRE
• Interview, by Charlie Rose, aired 2010-12-07, with transcript.