Film scholar, film festival curator.

Born in 1939 in the German city of Augsburg. Studies of German literature at Stuttgart University. Works as film critic from the middle of the 60-s, actually for the national radio (“Bayerischer Rundfunk”) and for German language film magazines. Books among others on Andrzej Wajda, Luis Bunuel, Nikita Mikhalkov and Andrei Konchalovsky, Arturo Ripstein, Im Kwon-Taek, Nagisa Oshima (two books together with Alexander Kluge). In 1986–2007 – programmer of the Munich International Film Festival. Adviser for a variety of festivals. General Secretary of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) from 1987. Lives and works in Munich.