Born in Stuttgart, Germany, Andres Veiel is a renowned film and theatre director and writer. While studying psychology in the 1980s, Veiel completed directing and dramaturgy training with Krzysztof Kieślowski at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien.  

His first feature-length documentary was Winternachtstraum (1992), followed by Balagan (1993), which won the Berlinale Peace Film Prize.  

Veiel earned attention with documentary Black Box BRD (2001), feature film If Not Us, Who? (2010), and feature film Beuys (2017), which received the German Film Award for Best Documentary. 

Veiel's approach to filmmaking is characterised by intensive research which sometimes takes several years. To date, he has won over fifty awards for his documentaries and feature films, as well as his theatre productions and writings.  

For his new documentary Riefenstahl, Veiel collaborated with highly acclaimed and well-known TV journalist/author/presenter Sandra Maischberger on the multi-year project to translate the archive to the screen, which included over eighteen months in the editing room.