Benedict Neuenfels was born March 11, 1966, in Bern. After finishing school, the son of actress Elisabeth Trissenaar and director Hans Neuenfels worked as an assistant cinematographer for Xaver Schwarzenberger and Robby Müller, among others. From 1988 to 1994, Neuenfels studied at Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie (dffb). Afterwards, he was the cinematographer of movie productions like "Bunte Hunde" ("The Break") and "Frau Rettich, die Czerny und ich" ("Mrs. Rettich, Czerny and Me"). Since 1996, Neuenfels teaches image composition at Filmakademie Ludwigsburg and at dffb. He repeatedly collaborated with director Dominik Graf, for instance, for the TV movies "Der Skorpion" ("The Scorpion") and "Deine besten Jahre", and for "Der Felsen" ("A Map of the Heart") and "Der rote Kakadu" ("The Red Cockatoo"). His most important productions for the movie screen include "Lost Killers", directed by Dito Tsintsadze, and the ensemble comedy "Sie haben Knut" ("They"ve Got Knut"), directed by Stefan Krohmer.

Neuenfels won several nominations for the German camera award and won the award for his composition of "Deine besten Jahre" and "Lost Killers". Furthermore, he won the Max Ophuels award for "Die fliegenden Kinder" in 1992, and the Adolf Grimme award for the TV crime film "Sperling und das Loch in der Wand" in 1997.

In 2006, he was in charge of cinematography for Stefan Ruzowitzky"s concentration camp drama "Die Fälscher" ("The Counterfeiters") that won the 2008 Academy award as "Best foreign language film". In faded, nearly monochrome images, he visualized the story"s atmosphere between desolation and hope and, thus, made a significant contribution to the film"s impact – a performance that won him a nomination for the German film award in 2007. In 2008, Neuenfels won the Bavarian film award and the German film award for filming Maria Schrader"s drama "Liebesleben" ("Love Life"), based on the novel by Zeruya Shalev.