Born in 1966 in Bern, Switzerland, Benedict Neuenfels is the son of renowned actress Elisabeth Trissenaar and director Hans Neuenfels. His first foray into the film industry occurred in 1982 as a production assistant for the feature film Penthesiliea.
Prior to establishing his own low-budget production company, Giselafilms Berlin, Neuenfels worked extensively as a camera assistant and operator for esteemed cinematographers Xaver Schwarzenberger, former director of photography for R.W. Fassbinder, and Robby Mueller, a long-time collaborator of Wim Wenders.
Following his studies at the German Film and Television School (dffb) in Berlin, Neuenfels has been responsible for the cinematography of over 60 feature films and documentaries, as well as lighting design for various stage plays in opera and theater. He has been teaching master camera classes at major film schools in Germany for more than two decades.
A member of the German, Austrian, and European Film Academies, Neuenfels has received numerous awards for his work, including multiple Grimme Awards, German Television Awards, Bavarian Film Awards, and German Film Awards. He has also been recognized with the German Camera Award for outstanding cinematography on seven occasions.
In 2007, Neuenfels photographed The Counterfeiters, which went on to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Feature Film the following year. He was honored by the German Academy of Arts for outstanding achievement in cinematography in 2011, and received various awards for his work on the feature film STYX in 2018.
In 2019, Neuenfels was awarded the Lifetime Honorary Award for Cinematography - German Camera Award, joining an esteemed group of former recipients including Michael Ballhaus, Robby Mueller, Renato Berta, Slawomir Idziak, Xaver Schwarzenberger, Judith Kaufmann, Elfie Mikesch, and Jürgen Jürges.
