Eric Friedler was born in Sidney, Australia, on 20th of June 1971. As an editorial journalist, he developed and oversaw numerous award-winning TV documentaries and fiction films for the public TV broadcaster ARD. As a director, he won multiple national and international awards for "Das Schweigen der Quandts" (2007, Deutscher Fernsehpreis and Hanns Joachim Friedrichs Award), "Aghet – Ein Völkermord" ("Aghet – A Genocide", 2010, Grimme Award, Deutscher Fernsehpreis, World Gold Medal of the New York Film Festival), "Der Sturz – Honeckers Ende" (2012, World Gold Medal), "Ein Deutscher Boxer" (2012, Grimme Award), "The Voice of Peace – der Traum des Abie Nathan" (2013, two Grimme Awards, Grand Prix International URTI du Documentaire d'Auteur) and "Das Mädchen – Was geschah mit Elisabeth K." (2014, Gold Special Jury Award of the Houston Film Festival).

His film "Aghet – Ein Völkermord" was the first German documentary film to be presented to the American congress before a resolution on genocide was passed. Cambridge University named "Der Sturz – Honeckers Ende" one of the milestones of German documentary film of the 21st century.  

Eric Friedler was involved in the development of a number of acclaimed productions, among them feature films such as "Deutschland 09 – 13 Kurzfilme zur Lage der Nation" ("Germany 09: 13 Short Films About the State of the Nation", 2009), Sebastian Schipper's "Mitte Ende August" ("Sometime in August", 2009) and Kaspar Heidelbach's "Berlin 36" (2009, as screenwriter). Widely acclaimed was Friedler's own TV documentary "Der Clown" (2016) about the production process and history of Jerry Lewis' still unpublished Holocaust drama "The Day the Clown Cried" (SE/FR) from 1972.

In 2018, his documentary feature film "It Must Schwing! - The Blue Note Story" about the legendary Jazz record label Blue Note Records celebrated its premiere at the Munich International Film Festival. The film was released in German cinemas in September 2018.