Stefan Ruzowitzky (born December 25, 1961) is an Academy Award-winning Austrian film director and screenwriter.

Ruzowitzky was born in Vienna. He studied drama and history at the University of Vienna and started directing music videos, for example for 'N Sync, and commercials.

In 1996, Ruzowitzky presented his first feature film, Tempo, about a group of youths living in Vienna. He was subsequently awarded with the Max Ophüls Preis. His next feature film, Die Siebtelbauern, set in the rural Mühlviertel in Upper Austria, came out in 1998, and was awarded Best Picture at the Rotterdam film festival as well as at the Flanders Film Festival. It also got a prize at the International Film Festival in Valladolid.

In 2000 he directed the successful German horror film Anatomy, starring Franka Potente, and in 2003 the equally well received sequel Anatomy 2. Between those two Ruzowitzky's first international co-production All the Queen's Men from 2001, starring Matt LeBlanc and Eddie Izzard, was received poorly by both critics and viewers.

August Diehl (born 4 January 1976) is a German actor, primarily known to international audiences for playing SS-Sturmbannführer Dieter Hellstrom in Inglourious Basterds and Michael "Mike" Krause, Evelyn Salt's husband, in the movie Salt, as well as for his leading role in the Academy Award-winning Austrian film The Counterfeiters (2007).

Diehl was born in Berlin. His father is actor Hans Diehl, his mother is a costume designer and his brother is a composer. His family was frequently moving around, while he grew up: the Diehls used to live in Hamburg, Vienna, Düsseldorf, Bavaria and France. Growing up in a family of artists, at the age of 18, he played Franz Mohr in a school theatre production of Die Räuber by Friedrich Schiller. After passing the Abitur exams, Diehl studied acting at the renowned Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch in Berlin. In 2000, he was named one of European film's "Shooting Stars" by the European Film Promotion. In 2006, Gala magazine named him "the most important German actor of today." Diehl is married to actress Julia Malik. On 23rd May 2009 the couple had a daughter, Elsa Augusta. Diehl plays the guitar and speaks Spanish, German, French and English.

Karl Markovics (born August 29, 1963) is an Austrian actor and film director.

He starred as Salomon Sorowitsch in Stefan Ruzowitzky's 2007 film The Counterfeiters, which was awarded the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for that year. Prior to that, his most notable appearances have been in the highly-acclaimed Austrian (Viennese) black comedy Komm, süßer Tod (2001), his role as far-right terrorist Franz Fuchs in the 2007 TV movie Franz Fuchs - Ein Patriot, and in the police drama television series Inspector Rex. His character from Inspector Rex had his own spin-off series, Stockinger. He also played the role of Ferdinand aus der Fünten in the 2012 Dutch film Süskind.

Markovics remains a frequent stage actor, and in April 2010 played the non-singing role of Samiel in Counterfeiters-director Ruzowitzky's first opera production, Der Freischütz at Vienna's Theater an der Wien.

He directed and wrote Atmen in 2011.