--- name: "Wolfgang Becker" canonical: "https://film.one/person/wolfgang-becker" fi1m_id: "wolfgang-becker" imdb_id: "nm0065615" tmdb_id: 4780 wikidata_id: "Q60669" roles: ["Director"] born: "22 June 1954" died: "12 December 2024" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_as: "director" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-17T22:50:18.484929+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." --- # Wolfgang Becker ## Identity Wolfgang Becker - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/wolfgang-becker - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** wolfgang-becker - **IMDb ID:** nm0065615 - **TMDB ID:** 4780 - **Wikidata ID:** Q60669 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Becker_(director,_born_1954), https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60669, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0065615/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/4780 Director. Born 22 June 1954 in Hemer, Germany. Died 12 December 2024. ## Details - **Work:** Director - **Born:** 22 June 1954, Hemer, Germany - **Died:** 12 December 2024 - **Also known as:** Вольфганг Беккер - **Titles on Fi1m:** 2: 1 directing, 1 other - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1990s 82 (1), 2000s 78 (1) - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Becker_(director,_born_1954), https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60669, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0065615/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/4780 ## Fi1m on Wolfgang Becker > Wolfgang Becker makes funny, sympathetic films about people caught up in historical change. We rate his attention to their everyday attachments, though *Good Bye, Lenin* shows how an elaborate deception can keep a story going too long. In *Good Bye, Lenin* (2003), a son makes television news to keep his mother from noticing that her country is disappearing. The reports are funny because they reproduce the solemn manner of official broadcasting for an audience of one. Becker gives the imitation time to convince us, while keeping the son's anxiety beneath the joke. We laughed, then felt fond of Alex because of the work he puts into sparing his mother distress. Becker is good at showing how concern for someone can lead to increasingly unreasonable behaviour, without losing sight of the affection that started it. *Life Is All You Get* (1997) was his breakthrough, with *Good Bye, Lenin* taking his work to an international audience six years later. In both, his work with actors brings historical change close to individual lives. Daniel Brühl and Katrin Sass make the family in *Good Bye, Lenin* believable enough for its increasingly elaborate lie to matter. Becker takes the mother's attachment to familiar ways of living seriously, without asking us to endorse everything she believes. Nobody has to be treated as a fool simply for missing what they knew, and that gives the comedy room to acknowledge how much change can hurt. His weakness is also plain here: he finds more variations on the deception than the story can comfortably use. Becker and his fellow screenwriters are better at small observations of behaviour than at giving Alex's scheme somewhere fresh to go. For a stretch, the effort of keeping it alive becomes tiring to watch. Brühl and Sass give us a reason to stay, but good performances cannot make every repetition necessary. *Me and Kaminski* (2015) reunited him with Brühl for an adaptation of Daniel Kehlmann's novel, taking his interest in deception into the art world. His final film, *Der Held vom Bahnhof Friedrichstraße* (2025), returned to the period around German reunification. Start with *Good Bye, Lenin* for Brühl and Sass, and allow Becker a little more time than his plot needs. ## Biography Wolfgang Becker was a German film director and screenwriter. Born in Hemer in 1954, he studied German, history and American studies at the Free University of Berlin before training at the German Film and Television Academy (DFFB). His student film *Schmetterlinge* (1988) received a Student Academy Award. He co-founded the production company X Filme Creative Pool in 1994. His feature *Life Is All You Get* (1997) premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival. Becker directed and co-wrote the screenplay for *Good Bye, Lenin!* (2003). Later credits include *Me and Kaminski* (2015). He completed *Der Held vom Bahnhof Friedrichstraße* shortly before his death in Berlin on 12 December 2024. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, hollywoodreporter.com, filmportal.de.* ## On Fi1m (2) ### Directed (1) — the average rests on these - *Good Bye, Lenin!* (2003), Fi1m 78, Director, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/good-bye-lenin.md) ### Also credited (1) — thanks, archive footage, uncredited - *Run Lola Run* (1998), Fi1m 82, Thanks — [page](https://film.one/film/run-lola-run.md) ## Complete filmography (15) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Berlin Hero* (2025), Director, Co-Writer - *Me and Kaminski* (2015), Director, Writer, Producer - *Germany ’09 – 13 Short Films About the State of the Nation* (2009), Director - *Welcome to São Paulo* (2004), Director - *Good Bye, Lenin!* (2003), Director, Screenplay — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/film/good-bye-lenin.md) - *Run Lola Run* (1998), Thanks — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/film/run-lola-run.md) - *Life Is All You Get* (1997), as Fleischhof-Chef · Screenplay, Director - *Child's Play* (1993), Editor, Director, Writer - *Nicht mit uns* (1991), Director - *Sturzflug* (1989), Cinematography - *Butterflies* (1988), Director - *A Lot of Coal* (1981), as Sparkassenangestellter - *Riviera-Story* (1961), Writer - *Die seltsame Geschichte des Brandner Kaspar* (1949), Editor - *Menschen vom Varieté* (1939), Editor ## Gallery - ![Wolfgang Becker at the Berlinale 2019](https://film.one/media/person/98268/gallery-52dd4940d7b7.jpg) Wolfgang Becker at the Berlinale 2019 — Martin Kraft, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a3/MJK_39203_Wolfgang_Becker_%28Berlinale_2019%29.jpg/1280px-MJK_39203_Wolfgang_Becker_%28Berlinale_2019%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Florian Koerner von Gustorf, Andreas Schreitmüller and Wolfgang Becker at the reception of arte during the Berlinale 2020](https://film.one/media/person/98268/gallery-1805b49c9cf2.jpg) Florian Koerner von Gustorf, Andreas Schreitmüller and Wolfgang Becker at the reception of arte during the Berlinale 2020 — Martin Kraft, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/70/MJK_71082_Florian_Koerner_von_Gustorf%2C_Andreas_Schreitm%C3%BCller_und_Wolfgang_Becker_%28arte-Empfang%2C_Berlinale_2020%29.jpg/1280px-MJK_71082_Florian_Koerner_von_Gustorf%2C_Andreas_Schreitm%C3%BCller_und_Wolfgang_Becker_%28arte-Empfang%2C_Berlinale_2020%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Wolfgang Becker](https://film.one/media/person/98268/gallery-3c95e7f04ee9.jpg) Wolfgang Becker — Martin Kraft, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fd/MJK_71083_Wolfgang_Becker_%28arte-Empfang%2C_Berlinale_2020%29.jpg/1280px-MJK_71083_Wolfgang_Becker_%28arte-Empfang%2C_Berlinale_2020%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Wolfgang Becker, German writer and film director ("Goodbye Lenin"); Opening of the 59th Berlin International Film Festival (2009)](https://film.one/media/person/98268/gallery-f48e62e3fa56.jpg) Wolfgang Becker, German writer and film director ("Goodbye Lenin"); Opening of the 59th Berlin International Film Festival (2009) — Siebbi, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/43/Wolfgang_Becker_o.jpg/1280px-Wolfgang_Becker_o.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Wolfgang Becker (2014)](https://film.one/media/person/98268/gallery-125f42e4b9d2.jpg) Wolfgang Becker (2014) — Siebbi, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Wolfgang_Becker_o_crop.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) ## Awards ### Other awards — 4 won - Ernst Lubitsch award 2026: Ernst Lubitsch award (won) - European Film Award for Best Director 2003: European Film Award for Best Director (won), for *Good Bye Lenin!* - European Film Award for Best Film 2003: European Film Award for Best Film (won), for *Good Bye Lenin!* - European Film Award - People's Choice Award for Best Director 2003: European Film Award - People's Choice Award for Best Director (won), for *Good Bye Lenin!* *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/wolfgang-becker