Philip Gröning was born in 1959 in Düsseldorf. He started his own production company while he was still studying at the University of Television & Film Munich in 1986, and since then has been responsible on all his films for production, directing, screenplay, editing and parts of the cinematography.

Gröning first attracted attention in 1992 with his film "Die Terroristen!" (The Terrorists"), the TV broadcast of which the then German Chancellor Helmut Kohl unsuccessfully tried to prevent. The film won the Bronze Leopard in Locarno and ran at the Sundance International Film Festival. Gröning gained international recognition in 2000 for his film "L'amour, l'argent, l'amour", which won the Leopard in Locarno for lead actress Sabine Timoteo. His greatest success both in Germany and internationally came in 2005 with "Die große Stille" ("Into Great Silence"), a 162-minute artistic documentary film that was a surprise worldwide audience success and among others won the Special Jury Prize in Sundance, the European Film Award, the Bavarian Film Award and German Film Critics' Association Award as well a nomination for a German Film Award.

Gröning was Jury President for the section Orrizonti at the Venice Film Festival in 2006, as well as Member of the Jury at the Munich Filmfest in 2009. He is a member of the European Film Academy and the German Film Academy as well as the Bavarian Academy for the Fine Arts. A selection of his films includes: "Sommer" (Summer",1986), "Stachoviak!" (short, 1988), "Opfer, Zeugen" ("Victims, Witnesses", doc, 1993), "Die Frau des Polizisten" ("The Police Officer's Wife", 2013), and "Mein Bruder heißt Robert und ist ein Idot" (My Brother's name is Robert and He is an Idiot", 2018).

Source: German Films Service & Marketing GmbH