---
name: "Edward Berger"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/edward-berger"
fi1m_id: "edward-berger"
imdb_id: "nm0074163"
tmdb_id: 221522
wikidata_id: "Q1291686"
roles: ["Director","Producer"]
born: "1 January 1970"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 6
average_fi1m_score: 76
average_as: "director"
average_over: 5
updated: "2026-09-21T01:17:14.072778+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Edward Berger

## Identity

Edward Berger

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/edward-berger
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** edward-berger
- **IMDb ID:** nm0074163
- **TMDB ID:** 221522
- **Wikidata ID:** Q1291686
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Berger, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1291686, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0074163/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/221522

Director and producer. Born 1 January 1970 in Wolfsburg, West Germany [now Germany].

## Details

- **Work:** Director, Producer
- **Born:** 1 January 1970, Wolfsburg, West Germany [now Germany]
- **Active:** 2015–present
- **Also known as:** Ed Berger
- **Titles on Fi1m:** 6: 5 directing, 1 producing
- **BAFTA Film Awards:** 1 BAFTA (1 won)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 76, as director, over 5 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 2010s 78 (3), 2020s 76 (3)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 76 to 77 across 5 titles
- **Score spread:** 1 at 80+, 4 at 60–79, 0 under 60
- **Genres:** Drama 5, Mystery 1, Sci-Fi & Fantasy 1, Thriller 1, War 1
- **Screen time:** 4 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $116m across 1 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Berger, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1291686, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0074163/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/221522

## Streaming the US now

- **AMC+:** [*The Terror*](https://film.one/tv/the-terror.md) (82)
- **Netflix:** [*All Quiet on the Western Front*](https://film.one/film/all-quiet-on-the-western-front.md) (71)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Edward Berger

> Edward Berger puts men in rooms they cannot leave and watches what the rooms do to them. His quiet, procedural work is his best; when he turns the volume up he is less interesting, and he knows how to do both.

Edward Berger's idea of a set piece is a man in red walking quickly down a corridor. In *Conclave* (2024) the pope is dead, the cardinals are locked in, and the tension comes from folded paper: a name read aloud, a needle threaded through the ballot, a face in the second row doing arithmetic. Nick Emerson cuts the votes as procedure and Berger trusts us to keep count. We were more gripped by that than by most chases, because nothing is rushed and nobody explains what we can already see.

He came to this by a long road. He trained at NYU Tisch and worked at Good Machine in New York, then went back to Germany and spent the best part of two decades in German television and features, among them *Jack* (2014), a small film that already had his habit of staying close to one person and refusing the wide shot. *Deutschland 83* (2015) got him noticed abroad; *Patrick Melrose* and *The Terror* (both 2018) got him English-language work. Then came *All Quiet on the Western Front* (2022), which was loud, and *Conclave*, which was not, and he is better at not.

*The Terror*, on which he directed alongside Tim Mielants and others, is the clearest case. Above decks the sky and the ice are the same dirty white; below, the ceilings are so low the officers stoop and the lantern light shows breath before it shows faces. The shots are held still until we feel the cold ourselves. It is the most frightening period television we have sat through in a long while, and the creature is the least of it.

What Berger does well is the sealed place: two ships frozen into the Arctic, a Vatican with the doors shut. Volker Bertelmann has scored five of his projects, and in *Conclave* the strings are plucked and bowed close to the bridge so they sound like wire under strain; the score does the nerves so the actors do not have to. What he does less well is know when he has said enough. *Conclave* is a potboiler that wants to be taken for a meditation, and its ending gives the game away. *The Terror* goes slack in the middle. His war film was faulted by some German reviewers and historians for departures from the record and from the novel; we have not reviewed it, and will only note that the complaint attaches to the loud one.

He has said he saw *Conclave* as a chance to make an Alan J. Pakula political conspiracy thriller, and that is the right ambition for him: men in robes, in rooms, deciding things. He is now attached to a Bourne film. Bourne films are mostly running. We would rather he kept the doors shut and made us wait.

## Biography

Edward Berger is a director and screenwriter. Born on 6 March 1970 in Wolfsburg, West Germany, he holds Swiss and Austrian citizenship. He studied at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig and graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in 1994.

He is known for the German films *Jack* (2014) and *All Quiet on the Western Front* (2022), as well as his English-language debut *Conclave* (2024). Berger has also directed television series including *Deutschland 83* (2015) and *Patrick Melrose* (2018).

For *All Quiet on the Western Front*, Berger won an Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, and won three British Academy Film Awards. For *Conclave*, he received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Director and a British Academy Film Award for Outstanding British Film.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, goldenglobes.com.*

## On Fi1m (6)

### Directed (5) — the average rests on these

- *Conclave* (2024), Fi1m 76, Director, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/conclave.md)
- *All Quiet on the Western Front* (2022), Fi1m 71, Director, Screenplay, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/all-quiet-on-the-western-front.md)
- *Patrick Melrose* (2018), Fi1m 78, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/patrick-melrose.md)
- *The Terror* (2018), Fi1m 82, Executive Producer, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-terror.md)
- *Deutschland* (2015), Fi1m 74, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/deutschland.md)

### Produced (1)

- *Fatherland* (2026), Fi1m 80, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/fatherland.md)

## Complete filmography (34)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Fatherland* (2026), Producer — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/film/fatherland.md)
- *Ballad of a Small Player* (2025), Director, Producer
- *Conclave* (2024), Director, Executive Producer — Fi1m 76, [page](https://film.one/film/conclave.md)
- *All Quiet on the Western Front* (2022), Producer, Screenplay, Director — Fi1m 71, [page](https://film.one/film/all-quiet-on-the-western-front.md)
- *Your Honor* (2020), series, Director, Executive Producer
- *All My Loving* (2019), Director, Screenplay, Co-Producer
- *Eden* (2019), series, Writer, Creator
- *Patrick Melrose* (2018), series, Director — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/tv/patrick-melrose.md)
- *The Terror* (2018), series, Director, Executive Producer — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-terror.md)
- *On the Beach* (2015), Producer
- *Deutschland* (2015), series, Director — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/tv/deutschland.md)
- *Jack* (2014), Director, Screenplay
- *Mom's Gotta Go* (2012), Director
- *A Good Summer* (2011), Writer, Director
- *Windland* (2007), Director
- *KDD - Kriminaldauerdienst* (2007), series, Director, Writer
- *Bloch* (2002), series, Director
- *Under Suspicion* (2002), series, Director, Writer
- *Frau2 Seeks HappyEnd* (2001), Director, Writer
- *Gomez: Heads or Tails* (1998), Director, Writer
- *Schimanski* (1997), series, Director
- *Wanderbread* (1995), Writer, Director
- *Smelly Dinners* (1994), Writer, Director
- *Sidewalk Hotel* (1993), Director, Writer
- *Strait-Jacket* (1992), Director, Writer
- *Polizeiruf 110* (1971), series, Writer, Director
- *Scene of the Crime* (1970), series, Director, Writer
- *The Barrier*, Director, Producer
- *A Ladder to the Sky*, Producer
- *The Riders*, Director, Producer
- *Untitled Evan Gershkovich Biopic*, Director
- *Jason Bourne 6*, Director
- *Untitled Lance Armstrong Film*, Director, Producer
- *Stradivarius*, Director, Producer

## Gallery

- ![Edward Berger](https://film.one/media/person/10402/gallery-14395e174147.jpg) Edward Berger — Quejaytee, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e2/2025_Edward_Berger_%28cropped%29.jpg/1280px-2025_Edward_Berger_%28cropped%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Colin Farrell on the Green Carpet at the 2025 Zurich Film Festival.](https://film.one/media/person/10402/gallery-2d9b4c9d2aec.jpg) Colin Farrell on the Green Carpet at the 2025 Zurich Film Festival. — Quejaytee, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3d/Colin_Farrell_on_the_Green_Carpet_at_the_2025_Zurich_Film_Festival_06.jpg/1280px-Colin_Farrell_on_the_Green_Carpet_at_the_2025_Zurich_Film_Festival_06.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![ConclaveBFILFF101024 (24 of 44) (2024)](https://film.one/media/person/10402/gallery-2fe1f12f7b70.jpg) ConclaveBFILFF101024 (24 of 44) (2024) — Raph_PH, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c1/ConclaveBFILFF101024_%2824_of_44%29_%2854062519400%29.jpg/1280px-ConclaveBFILFF101024_%2824_of_44%29_%2854062519400%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![ConclaveBFILFF101024 (25 of 44) (2024)](https://film.one/media/person/10402/gallery-503f6fb67002.jpg) ConclaveBFILFF101024 (25 of 44) (2024) — Raph_PH, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/07/ConclaveBFILFF101024_%2825_of_44%29_%2854062387634%29.jpg/1280px-ConclaveBFILFF101024_%2825_of_44%29_%2854062387634%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Edward Berger](https://film.one/media/person/10402/gallery-fb13bfd9b550.jpg) Edward Berger — Image via TMDB
- ![Edward Berger](https://film.one/media/person/10402/gallery-b1a73f66f152.jpg) Edward Berger — Image via TMDB
- ![Edward Berger](https://film.one/media/person/10402/gallery-e89591f9e9b5.jpg) Edward Berger — Image via TMDB
- ![ConclaveBFILFF101024 (26 of 44) (2024)](https://film.one/media/person/10402/gallery-b1cdd46d58b9.jpg) ConclaveBFILFF101024 (26 of 44) (2024) — Raph_PH, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b1/ConclaveBFILFF101024_%2826_of_44%29_%2854062519305%29.jpg/1280px-ConclaveBFILFF101024_%2826_of_44%29_%2854062519305%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Edward Berger](https://film.one/media/person/10402/gallery-fed9e2a60f80.jpg) Edward Berger — Image via TMDB

## Awards

### Academy Awards — 0 won, 1 nominated

- 2023: Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (nominated), for *All Quiet on the Western Front*

### BAFTA Film Awards — 1 won

- 2023: Best Direction (won), for *All Quiet on the Western Front*

### Other awards — 1 won

- Grimme-Preis 2011: Grimme-Preis (won)

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/edward-berger