Called 'Billie' by his mother, a fan of William Cody, Wilder became a reporter for the yellow press when his father moved his family from rural Galicia to Vienna just before World War I.

One of the great geniuses of comedy in the cinema, Ernst Lubitsch was the most successful of the many émigrés and exiles in his transition from Weimar Germany to Hollywood.

Robert Siodmak's directorial debut was the famous Berlin film Menschen am Sonntag (1930), which establishes him as serious filmmaker.

Trained as both a violinist and a lawyer, Zinnemann moved to America in 1937 after working on Menschen am Sonntag (1929), in Germany and The Wave (1934) in Mexico.

Before 1932, he was primarily a writer of humorous and light screenplays, often in close collaboration with Kurt Bernhardt. His first film as director was Das Abenteuer der Thea Roland (1932).

One of the most renown and accomplished directors of the 20th century, Lang’s exceptional career began as scriptwriter for Joe May’s company where he met his future wife Thea von Harbou.

A businessman and operetta director, Joe May can be considered one of the founders of the German cinema.