He studied Art History, Film, TV and Anthropology. He is a Film critic and author of almost 20 books on cinema. In the 1980s, he co-founded a production company which produced programs for German TV / Voice of Germany. Later on, he co-founded a production and post-production company. Co-writer and director of several documentaries, the most renowned ones being about two German stars, Götz George and Mario Adorf. In the 1990s, he started working as a commissioning editor in the film department at ARTE. He then became director of that department. In 2000, he became head of the ARTE/ZDF department which he lead until recently, when he became head of the ARTE/ZDF Fiction sector. He has been a consultant for EAVE and ACE, and a jury member at several international festivals.