Michael Haneke

Born: 23 March 1942
Where: Munich, Germany

The trained psychologist is probably best known for his the thriller Hidden about a married couple terrorised by a series of anonymous videotapes.

Constantly returning to his pet subject - violence and the media - he also caused a stir with the gripping Funny Games, which was also remade for a US audience with Naomi Watts.

Haneke studied philosophy, psychology and theatre in Vienna before switching to work in German language theatre and TV.

Haneke made his feature debut with The Seventh Continent in 1989, which made the Director's Fortnight at Cannes.

Both Benny's Video and 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance were critical hits at Cannes before the controversial Funny Games reached the official competition.

The movie focused on the kidnap of a young family by two psychotics who then force them to play sadistic games with them.

Next up was 2000's Code Unknown which he followed with The Piano Teacher, which won the star Isabelle Huppert the best actress award at Cannes.

In 2003, he made the post-apocalyptic thriller Time of the Wolf, starring Huppert, Beatrice Dalle and Olivier Gourmet.

He followed that up with Hidden, starrig Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche as a married couple terrorized by a series of videotapes planted on their front porch.

Recent work includes the American remake of Funny Games, starring Naomi Watts (who co-produced) and Tim Roth.