Christian Petzold

Director at DIFF 2026

Christian Petzold is a German film director. After graduating from the German Film and Television Academy, he directed his graduation film Pilots (1994) and two crime thrillers Cuba Libre (1996) and The Sex Thief (1998). In 2000 he released his first feature film, The State I Am In, for which he also wrote the screenplay. A representative of the “nouvelle vague” of German cinema, his films are regularly in competition at the Berlinale, and he has received awards for Barbara (2012), Undine (2020) and Afire (2023).