Biography:

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 Der Name der Rose (1986). Peter Welz lives in Berlin.