米高．漢尼卡，1942年3月23日生於德國慕尼黑，父母親分別為導演及演員。漢尼卡於奧地利維也納工人聚居的市郊長大，曾嘗試演戲及彈奏鋼琴，其後在維也納大學修讀哲學及心理學，繼而投身影評及舞台劇導演工作，並於1973年執導首部電視作品《After Liverpool》。他的首部電影作品為1989年的《第七洲》，亦即其「冰川三部曲」之首部曲，另外兩部曲分別為《熒光血影》 (1992) 及《機緣七十一面觀》 (1994) ，在題材和形式上皆震撼人心。隨後的《你玩得起，你玩唔起》(1997) 技驚四座，獲提名康城影展最佳導演，並讓漢尼卡在歐洲影壇闖出名堂。2000年的《巴黎怨曲》標誌著漢尼卡踏出奧地利邁向國際資金攝製的第一步。翌年，《鋼琴教師》揚威康城，摘下評審團大獎及最佳男女主角獎；該片的成功令漢尼卡終於能籌得資金攝製丟放了多年的《暴狼時刻》(2003)。 2006年的《偷窺》 (2006) 探討個人與國家層面的罪疚，被譽為是漢尼卡的另一傑作。2007年，漢尼卡以英語重拍了當年自己的成名作《你玩得起，你玩唔起》，起用荷里活影星，抨擊美國媒體中的暴力。

Born in Munich, Germany on 23rd in March 1942 to an actress mother and a director father, Michael Haneke spent his early years in a working class suburb of Vienna, Austria before early attempts as an actor and pianist. He then attended the University of Vienna to study philosophy and psychology, and became a film critic and stage director. Haneke made his eventual debut as a television director with After Liverpool in 1973 and continued to work in the medium through the early 90s. The Seventh Continent, made in 1989, was his feature debut and the first of a trilogy functioning as social commentaries to the Austrian society, with Benny’s Video (1992) and 71 Fragments of a Chronology Chance (1994) being the second and third instalments. The highly disturbing Funny Games (1997) earned Haneke a nomination for the Golden Palm at Cannes, marking his breakthrough in European cinema. Code Unknown (2000) signified his departure from Austria and on to a more international arena in film-making. In 2001, Haneke took home the Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival for The Piano Teacher, which also brought Isabelle Huppert and Benoît Magimel the Best Actress and Best Actor awards. Success for The Piano Teacher made it possible for Haneke to film The Time of the Wolf (2003), a project he had put aside for years due to lack of funding. Hidden (2006), a story about guilt both on a personal and national level, is hailed as Haneke’s new masterpiece with critical reception eclipsing that of The Piano Teacher. In 2007, Haneke made the English version of Funny Games, introducing his work to a wider audience.