Michael Haneke

Michael Haneke is an acclaimed Austrian film director and screenwriter, known for his explorations of social issues and the feelings of alienation experienced in modern society. Throughout his career, Haneke made films in French, German, and English, leaving his mark on television and theatre along the way. He gained attention with his 'glaciation' trilogy, which explores themes of bureaucratic society and societal malaise. He won the Cannes Film Festival's Grand Prix for The Piano Teacher (2001) and its Palme d'Or twice, for The White Ribbon (2009) and Amour (2012), the latter even won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. His early life was marked by a strong interest in literature and music, eventually leading him to study philosophy, psychology, and drama at the University of Vienna. He started his career in television in 1974, making a name for himself with several television projects. Michael Haneke's film style is known for being unsentimental and for using disturbing imagery to explore social critiques on issues such as class, race, gender, and violence. He is also known for his distinctive use of the long take, static shots, ambiguous endings, meta-narratives, and silence. With a career in the film industry dating from 1974 to the present day, Haneke has shared his expertise teaching film direction at the Film Academy Vienna.