personalities - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 2016 - 68 Euro Cent

Concert pianist or conductor - these were professions with which Michael Haneke had flirted in his early years. It does not come by any chance that he, who is one of the best-known directors in the world, finally made it into the film industry: his father Fritz Haneke was a director and actor, his mother Beatrix von Degenschild was also Mimin. Michael Haneke, born March 23, 1942, was about to leave school and step into the footsteps of his parents. He applied to the famous Max Reinhardt seminar, the acting and direction school in the German-speaking world, but was rejected and yet completed the high school. He then studied philosophy, psychology and theater studies at the University of Vienna, but dropped out to work as a television dramaturge and editor. In these years at the Südwestfunk he learned the craft of filmmaking from scratch. In the 70s he worked as a theater director and scriptwriter, including in Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Munich and Vienna. The beginning of his career as a film director made television films such as "Lemmings" and "Variation" and "Who was Edgar Allan?". Already with his first movie Michael Haneke made in the industry of itself: "The seventh continent" earned him the bronze leopard at the Film Festival in Locarno. Michael Haneke became even better known with "Benny's Video", for which he also got the Vienna Film Award. With films like "Funny Games" and "Code: unknown", he continued his quest to break taboos with his often gloomy work in order to consistently get to the bottom of human nature. "The Pianist" based on the novel by Elfriede Jelinek and starring Isabelle Huppert finally brought enormous success and the jury's big prize at the Cannes International Film Festival, which is a peer-to-peer in the industry. Haneke was also awarded the German Film Award in the category "Best Foreign Film". "Wolfzeit" and "Caché" followed. With "The White Ribbon" Haneke could claim the Golden Palm of Cannes for the best feature film for himself, he also got an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe for it. With "Amour," which was nominated for five Academy Awards, Haneke finally won the most famous award in the international film industry. Most recently, Haneke, who also received the Billy Wilder Award for services to Filmland Austria, the Knights of the French Legion of Honor, and honorary doctorates, as well as numerous other film awards in Europe, also made a name for himself as an opera director. Hanekes films are not light fare, often they are about fear, threat and violence and have something disturbing. His ambition is always to irritate and to make the audience think.