Born in Berlin in 1963, Armin Völckers spent his early years in Rio de Janeiro before returning to Germany with his parents. He studied fine arts at the Academy of Art in Berlin from 1983 to 1988, and his work was featured in over 50 exhibitions in Germany, other European countries, and the U.S. After gaining experience in film as a producer of animated series, script editor and creative director, Völckers began working as a freelance screenwriter in 1997. He directed his first film in 2005, the 19-minute short "Leroy räumt auf" ("Leroy Cleans Up"), which has received several awards, including Best Short Film at the festival in St. Petersburg and the BMW Förderpreis at the Film+ Festival in Cologne. Völckers used the same material as the basis for his first full-length feature, "Leroy" (2007).