Happy 66th Birthday, Wolfgang Becker! Born today in 1954, this German screenwriter and film director studied Germanistics, History and American Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin.
In 1980, post graduation, Becker followed this with a job at a sound studio and then began studies at the German Film and Television Academy (dffb).
In 1983, Becker started working as a freelance cameraman. Three years later, he graduated from the dffb. This was with the fifty-seven-minute 1986 West German black and white drama film 'Schmetterlinge' ('Butterflies').
Later that same year, the film won the Student Academy Award. This was presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. This is an annual competition for college and university filmmakers.
It January of that same year, his film went on to win the Saarland Prime-Minister's Award at the 9th Ophuels Festival Saarbruecken (Max Ophüls Prize Film Festival).
In August, it won the Golden Leopard at the 41st Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland.
Three years later, Becker directed an episode of the German language police procedural crime drama thriller television series Tatort (1970–present). This was Blutwurstwalzer (Blood Sausage Waltz) (S01E248). It aired on September 22, 1991.
The episode was before making his second feature, being the 1991 German drama film 'Kinderspiele' ('Child's Play')
The following year, he directed the fifty-five-minute 1992 German music/documentary film 'Sergiu Celibidache: The Triumphant Return').
The film told of how, after almost a thirty-eight-year absence of the titular Romanian conductor, composer, musical theorist, and teacher had come back on the podium of the Berlin Philharmoniker.
In 1994, Becker co-founded the production company X Filme Creative Pool with German film director, producer, screenwriter, and composer Tom Tykwer ('Run Lola Run'), Stefan Arndt and Dani Levy.
From there he worked with Tykwer on the Berlinale competition feature, being the 1997 German comedy/drama film 'Das Leben its eine Baustelle' ('Life Is All You Get').
Among his credits, Becker is best known for co-writing and directing the 2003 German drama/tragicomedy romance film 'Good Bye, Lenin!'
Set in East Berlin on October 1989, right before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Alex Kerner (Daniel Brühl) is living with his mom, Christiane (Kathrin Sass), and sister, Ariane (Maria Simon).
However, when the mother, a loyal party member, sees Alex participating in an anti-communist rally, she falls into a coma and misses the revolution.
After she wakes eight months later in June 1990, doctors say any jarring event could make her have a heart attack, meaning that the family must go to great lengths to pretend communism still reigns in Berlin.
Later in 2003, the film received numerous honours, including that year's European Film Award for Best Film and also the German Film Award for Best Feature Film.
In September 2004, Becker was a member of the jury at the 61st Venice International Film Festival.
Becker has been active from 1988–present.
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