---
name: "Tom Tykwer"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/tom-tykwer"
fi1m_id: "tom-tykwer"
imdb_id: "nm0878756"
tmdb_id: 1071
wikidata_id: "Q57231"
roles: ["Director","Writer"]
born: "23 May 1965"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 5
average_fi1m_score: 82
average_as: "director"
average_over: 2
updated: "2026-10-03T02:26:29.536678+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."
---

# Tom Tykwer

## Identity

Tom Tykwer

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/tom-tykwer
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** tom-tykwer
- **IMDb ID:** nm0878756
- **TMDB ID:** 1071
- **Wikidata ID:** Q57231
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Tykwer, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q57231, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0878756/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1071

Director and writer. Born 23 May 1965 in Wuppertal, Germany.

## Details

- **Work:** Director, Writer
- **Born:** 23 May 1965, Wuppertal, Germany
- **Active:** 1998–present
- **Titles on Fi1m:** 5: 2 directing, 1 crew, 2 other
- **Frequently works with:** [Stefan Arndt](https://film.one/person/stefan-arndt.md)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 82, as director, over 2 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1990s 82 (1), 2000s 86 (2), 2010s 82 (1), 2020s 66 (1)
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Tykwer, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q57231, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0878756/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1071

## Coming up

- *Kochschule Schwarz* (2026-12-24), Producer
- *I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming* (2027-02-25), Producer

## Streaming the US now

- **Apple TV:** [*Babylon Berlin*](https://film.one/tv/babylon-berlin.md) (82)
- **Disney+:** [*Run Lola Run*](https://film.one/film/run-lola-run.md) (82)

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

## Fi1m on Tom Tykwer

> Tom Tykwer makes movement and music do much of the storytelling, and we rate him most when both serve a simple, urgent task. Start with *Run Lola Run*, where the cutting is more persuasive than the philosophy.

Franka Potente runs, and Tom Tykwer keeps finding ways to make the same urgent errand worth watching again. In *Run Lola Run* (1998), Lola has twenty minutes to save her boyfriend, and the film offers three versions of the attempt. We were excited by the running because Potente's determination keeps the rescue feeling urgent through each restart. Tykwer's breakthrough remains our starting point for his work: a funny, inventive thriller whose showmanship mostly helps us follow the action. He gives himself a simple task here, and the film benefits from that limit.

Frank Griebe's cinematography keeps Lola clear while the camera loops around her. Editor Mathilde Bonnefoy makes the small differences between runs easy to notice, even as Tykwer switches between kinds of image. The techno score by Tykwer, Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek works closely with the cutting, making repetition feel urgent rather than dutiful. Alexander Manasse's production design is quieter, keeping Berlin a place Lola has to get across. We remember the running better than the streets, which is appropriate for this particular film.

The limitation is in Tykwer's screenplay, where convenient rearrangements of events are asked to tell us something about fate. The film remains warmly enjoyable, but its ideas cannot quite bear the emphasis he puts on them. *The Princess and the Warrior* (2000) returned to fate and connection with Potente, before *Perfume: The Story of a Murderer* (2006) took him into literary adaptation and period detail. He also worked on the scripts and scores of both films, keeping music within his own responsibilities as the work grew. That expansion is worth following, though elaboration alone has never been what makes his work engaging.

With *Cloud Atlas* (2012), co-directed with the Wachowskis, he moved into multiple interwoven stories, with some unevenness of tone. Television gave that appetite more room in *Babylon Berlin* (2017), which recreates Weimar Berlin. Working with co-writers and co-directors Achim von Borries and Henk Handloegten, he helped make the city central to the series. Collaboration matters here: the clarity Griebe and Bonnefoy bring to Lola's frantic journey is as valuable as Tykwer's taste for complication. For a first encounter, choose *Run Lola Run* and let its thoughts about chance pass without close examination.

## Biography

Tom Tykwer is a German film director, screenwriter and composer. He was born on 23 May 1965 in Wuppertal, Germany.

He is best known for directing, writing and composing the score for *Run Lola Run* (1998). His other notable works include directing *The Princess and the Warrior* (2000), *Heaven* (2002), *Perfume: The Story of a Murderer* (2006), *The International* (2009) and co-directing *Cloud Atlas* (2012) with the Wachowskis. He co-created the television series *Babylon Berlin* (2017–) and directed episodes of *Sense8* (2015–2018).

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org.*

## On Fi1m (5)

### Directed (2) — the average rests on these

- *Babylon Berlin* (2017), Fi1m 82, Director, Music, Original Music Composer, Writer, Executive Producer, Creator — [page](https://film.one/tv/babylon-berlin.md)
- *Run Lola Run* (1998), Fi1m 82, Music, Screenplay, Original Music Composer, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/run-lola-run.md)

### Crew (1)

- *The Matrix Resurrections* (2021), Fi1m 66, Music, Original Music Composer — [page](https://film.one/film/the-matrix-resurrections.md)

### Also credited (2) — thanks, archive footage, uncredited

- *Inglourious Basterds* (2009), Fi1m 92, Thanks — [page](https://film.one/film/inglourious-basterds.md)
- *Downfall* (2004), Fi1m 81, Thanks — [page](https://film.one/film/downfall.md)

## Complete filmography (39)

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

- *I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming* (2027), Producer
- *Kochschule Schwarz* (2026), Producer
- *The Light* (2025), Producer, Screenplay, Director, Original Music Composer
- *Looop Lapeta* (2022), Original Story
- *The Matrix Resurrections* (2021), Original Music Composer — Fi1m 66, [page](https://film.one/film/the-matrix-resurrections.md)
- *Lusala* (2019), Executive Producer
- *Supa Modo* (2018), Producer
- *Babylon Berlin* (2017), series, Director, Writer, Executive Producer, Original Music Composer, Creator — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/tv/babylon-berlin.md)
- *A Hologram for the King* (2016), Director, Screenplay, Original Music Composer
- *Sense8* (2015), series, Director
- *Something Necessary* (2013), Producer
- *Cloud Atlas* (2012), Screenplay, Producer, Director, Music, Original Music Composer
- *Rosakinder* (2012), Director
- *60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero* (2011), Director
- *Three* (2010), Screenplay, Director, Original Music Composer
- *Soul Boy* (2010), Producer, Supervising Technical Director
- *On the Other Side of the Screen: 100 Years of Moviemento Cinema* (2009), Actor
- *Inglourious Basterds* (2009), Thanks — Fi1m 92, [page](https://film.one/film/inglourious-basterds.md)
- *Germany ’09 – 13 Short Films About the State of the Nation* (2009), Director
- *The International* (2009), Director, Original Music Composer
- *Man in Things* (2008), Director
- *The Heart Is a Dark Forest* (2007), Producer
- *A Friend of Mine* (2006), Producer
- *Perfume: The Story of a Murderer* (2006), Screenplay, Original Music Composer, Director
- *Paris Je T'aime* (2006), Director, Music, Writer
- *Cinema 16: European Short Films (European Edition)* (2006), Director
- *Downfall* (2004), Thanks — Fi1m 81, [page](https://film.one/film/downfall.md)
- *Soundless* (2004), Producer
- *True* (2004), Director, Original Music Composer, Screenplay
- *Heaven* (2002), Director
- *The Princess and the Warrior* (2000), Screenplay, Director, Original Music Composer
- *Gigantic* (1999), Producer
- *Run Lola Run* (1998), Director, Screenplay, Original Music Composer — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/film/run-lola-run.md)
- *Winter Sleepers* (1997), Director, Screenplay, Original Music Composer
- *Life Is All You Get* (1997), Screenplay
- *Deadly Maria* (1993), Director, Screenplay, Original Music Composer, Producer
- *Epilog* (1992), Director, Writer, Original Music Composer
- *Because* (1990), Director, Writer, Original Music Composer
- *Zyklopen-Uschi* (1984), Assistant Camera

## Gallery

- ![Tom Tykwer](https://film.one/media/person/87823/gallery-bb94ea09d405.jpg) Tom Tykwer — Martin Kraft, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/MKr350743_Tom_Tykwer_%28NRW-Empfang%2C_Berlinale_2024%29.jpg/1280px-MKr350743_Tom_Tykwer_%28NRW-Empfang%2C_Berlinale_2024%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Deutscher Fernsehpreis 2018 - Achim von Borries, Gebhard Henke, Tom Tykwer und Stefan Arndt](https://film.one/media/person/87823/gallery-d67d39e706bf.jpg) Deutscher Fernsehpreis 2018 - Achim von Borries, Gebhard Henke, Tom Tykwer und Stefan Arndt — Superbass, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dc/2018-01-26-DFP_2018-7101.jpg/1280px-2018-01-26-DFP_2018-7101.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Deutscher Fernsehpreis 2018 - Achim von Borries und Tom Tykwer](https://film.one/media/person/87823/gallery-02afd6d046ea.jpg) Deutscher Fernsehpreis 2018 - Achim von Borries und Tom Tykwer — Superbass, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/2018-01-26-DFP_2018-7808.jpg/1280px-2018-01-26-DFP_2018-7808.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Deutscher Fernsehpreis 2018 - Achim von Borries und Tom Tykwer](https://film.one/media/person/87823/gallery-883baae5fbb1.jpg) Deutscher Fernsehpreis 2018 - Achim von Borries und Tom Tykwer — Superbass, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/37/2018-01-26-DFP_2018-7810.jpg/1280px-2018-01-26-DFP_2018-7810.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Tom Tykwer](https://film.one/media/person/87823/gallery-138ec378fe2f.jpg) Tom Tykwer — Image via TMDB
- ![Tom Tykwer](https://film.one/media/person/87823/gallery-dba428ee48c7.jpg) Tom Tykwer — Image via TMDB
- ![Tom Tykwer](https://film.one/media/person/87823/gallery-7ba8e064a215.jpg) Tom Tykwer — Image via TMDB
- ![Deutscher Fernsehpreis 2018 - Achim von Borries und Tom Tykwer](https://film.one/media/person/87823/gallery-b758515ba313.jpg) Deutscher Fernsehpreis 2018 - Achim von Borries und Tom Tykwer — Superbass, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d0/2018-01-26-DFP_2018-7814.jpg/1280px-2018-01-26-DFP_2018-7814.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Deutscher Fernsehpreis 2018 - Tom Tykwer und Johnny Klimek (beste Musik)](https://film.one/media/person/87823/gallery-316204775250.jpg) Deutscher Fernsehpreis 2018 - Tom Tykwer und Johnny Klimek (beste Musik) — Superbass, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1d/2018-01-26-DFP_2018-7827.jpg/1280px-2018-01-26-DFP_2018-7827.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)

## Awards

### Other awards — 1 won, 3 nominated

- European Film Award – People's Choice Award for Best European Film 2007: European Film Award – People's Choice Award for Best European Film (nominated), for *Perfume: The Story of a Murderer*
- Herbert Strate Award 2005: Herbert Strate Award (won)
- European Film Award - People's Choice Award for Best Director 2001: European Film Award - People's Choice Award for Best Director (nominated), for *The Princess and the Warrior*
- European Film Award for Best Film 1998: European Film Award for Best Film (nominated), for *Run Lola Run*

*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/tom-tykwer