Peter Welz was born in East Berlin in 1963. From 1984 until 1989, he studied directing at the Academy for Film and Television in Potsdam-Babelsberg. His student film, Willkommen in der Kantine (Welcome to the Cafeteria, with screenplay by Frank Castorf, 1988), won the Allan Parker Prize for direction at the International Festival for Film Academies in Munich. Welz experienced the opening of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 at the Munich festival, where his thesis film, Unsere Familie (Our Family, 1989), caused such a stir that a young producer from an important German TV station offered to collaborate with him. His debut, Banale Tage, about East Germany in the late 1970s, was one of the last films produced at the DEFA studios. Welz has directed films for cinema, including his internationally awarded road movie Burning Life, as well as for television.

Peter Welz is also known for acting in supporting roles in films under important directors, such as Heiner Carow and Michael Verhoeven, as well as in international hits, such as The Name of the Rose (1986). Peter Welz lives in Berlin

Selected Filmography

2007 Heimatgeschichten (transl. Hometown Stories, TV series, 2 episodes)

2007 Notruf Hafenkante (Hamburg Docks, TV series, 3 episodes)

2002 Der Fluch des schwarzen Schwans (The Curse of the Black Swan)

1999 Die Straßen von Berlin (transl. The Streets of Berlin, TV series, 1 episode)

1999 Fiesta der Leidenschaft (transl. Fiesta of Passion, TV)

1998 Im Visier der Zielfahnder (In the Spotlight of Investigaters, TV series pilot)

1997 Viel Spaß mit meiner Frau (Have a Good Time with My Wife, TV)

1994 Burning Life

1990 Banale Tage (Banal Days)