Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

Studied at the School of Television and Film in Munich, where he broke the student record for the number of short film awards won at festivals. Upon finishing all of his course work in 2001, he decided to make a feature film instead of another short as a graduation movie. The result - five years later-was Das Leben der Anderen (2006).

What makes film so much better than video is that film seems slightly surreal - for example, red on film is a chemical reproduction of red, and therefore has its own strange beauty. If you go anamorphic, it's almost like taking that effect to the power of two.