Fritz Flieder was born in Vienna, Austria.
With a strong background in photography and graphic design, Fritz Flieder combines his gift for aesthetics and storytelling to produce visually stunning and stylish commercials.
As noted European talent, Fritz made his foray into US commercials with a Gatorade campaign, shooting the commercials, “Leave it on the Floor”, “We/family” and “When No-ones Watching” who got awarded by shoot magazine for best commercial.
While studying Marketing and Advertising at the University of Economics in his hometown Vienna, Flieder began as an assistant photographer to several renowned Austrian photographers for beauty and fashion shoots as well as magazine covers before embarking on his own career as a photographer.
He then attended the Academy of Film in Vienna to study directing. During this time he directed his first short films in addition to promo spots for MTV Europe before acting as assistant director on numerous theater and movie projects in Vienna.
Utilizing his theater and film skills, Fritz began to work as an assistant director for numerous commercials and music videos in Austria and Germany. Together with Martin Weisz and Barbara Benson he started a music video production company in Hannover specializing in visual design for music videos, working for clients such as Virgin, EMI, BMG, Motor Music, Universal and Sony Entertainment.
Fritz went on to direct notable promotions and station designs for TV stations such as Premiere, ARD, ZDF, Viva and Arte before he entered the advertising arena with spots for Opel, Mercedes and Mannheimer Insurance. During this period he also directed several music videos including Liquido (Virgin Records), Future Breeze (Motor Music), Grid Locked (EastWest Records), Be (EMI Electrola), Cobra (Motor Music) and Wu-Tang Clan (BMI).
Continuing his highly prolific commercial work for Audi, BMW, Ford, Pontiac, Sony PlayStation and Canon, among many others, Fritz managed to established himself as a global player within the international advertising industry.
Flieder was finalist at the New York Film Festival, received a German Art Directors Club Award, was recipient of the European Designer Award, got awarded at the Animago and received the Berlinale young talent screenwriting award.
For his US representation Fritz was first signed to Ritts/Hayden, the production company of Star photographer Herb Ritts before he moved on to acclaimed production house Propaganda Films and later to DNA Inc. the highly reputable production company of Francis Lawrence, Marc Webb and Jean-Baptiste Mondino. With the birth of his first child Fritz moved back to Berlin, Germany where he started to enter movie business alongside his commercial work as 2nd Unit director for the movie “Spezial” before co –directing the full-length pilot of the TV serial “Rescue Team”.