Biography
Nikolaus Leytner was born in Graz, Austria, on 26th of October 1957. He studied directing and screenwriting at Vienna's Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst from 1977 through 1984. During his studies he realized several short films and won a number of awards. After graduating, he started working as a freelance author and director in Vienna. "Paradise Ges.m.b.H." (AT 1986) about the problems in a flat shared by seven people was his first feature-length film. In 1989 he co-founded the production company Allegro Film together with other filmmakers.
Leytner's documentary feature "Schatten im Rampenlicht" about the daily lives and dreams of extras and bit players in film, premiered in 1990. His fiction feature film "Ein Anfang von etwas" (AT 1995), starring Christoph Waltz as a love-struck projectionist won him the Erich-Neuberg-Preis and the tragic-comic story of a friendship "Schwarzfahrer" (AT 1996) received many good reviews. Less popular with critics was his comedy film "Drei Herren" (AT/DE 1998) about three escaped patients of a psychiatric ward.
Leytner also directed several TV films and from 1999 on, he has almost exclusively been working for television. Often based on screenplays written by himself, he realized numerous, partly award-winning TV films, such as the social drama "Der Schuss" (2001), the family drama "Stärker als der Tod" (2004) and the justice drama "Die Geschworene" with Christiane Hörbiger in the lead role. In 2008, he directed the well-received adaptation of Friedrich Dürrenmatt's classic "The Visit", again with Christiane Hörbiger in the main role.
A huge success was his psychological drama "Ein halbes Leben" ("Half a Life", AT/DE 2009) about a rapist (Josef Hader) and the father of the victim (Matthias Habich). In addition to receiving very good reviews, it also won awards at the Deutscher Filmpreis for Best Director and Best Actor (Josef Hader) as well as a Grimme-Preis for Leytner, Hader, Habich und Franziska Walser in the fiction film category.
Following this, Leytner directed a feature film again, the crime comedy "Der Fall des Lemming" (AT 2009). Also in 2009, he co-founded the Akademie des Österreichischen Films together with a number of other filmmakers. Still, Leytner mainly continued working for TV, realizing much-acclaimed films like "Die lange Welle hinterm Kiel" (2012) with Mario Adorf, Veronica Ferres and Christiane Hörbiger in the lead roles as well as the drama "Die Auslöschung" ("Blank", AT/DE 2013) with Martina Gedeck and Klaus Maria Brandauer, which focused on assisted suicide.
Again with Christiane Hörbiger in the lead role, Leytner shot the crime comedy film "Schon wieder Henriette" ("The Art of Murder") and the humorous ' seniors ' road movie "Zurück ins Leben". He tackled more serious topics in "Am Ende des Sommers" (2015) about a teenager who finds out he was conceived by rape, in "Die Kinder der Villa Emma" ("The Children of Villa Emma", AT/DE 2016) about an Italian villa that became the refuge for 73 Jewish children in 1942/43 and "Die Stille danach" ("The Silent That Follows", AT/DE 2016) about a family whose 14-year-old son goes on a shooting rampage.
In September 2018, Leytner presented his first feature film in nine years: "Der Trafikant" ("The Tobacconist"), based on Robert Seethaler’s novel of the same name, is set in Vienna in 1938 and tells the story of a friendship between a 17-year-old trainee and 82-year-old Sigmund Freud.