After work in theatre and television, Brandauer's career took off when he starred in István Szabó's Mephisto (1981), Redl Ezredes / Colonel Redl (1985) and Hanussen (1988), where he specialized in power-hungry, self-tormented and contradictory characters. Brandauer has won a variety of film awards, including a 1982 Cannes Award for Mephisto, which led to major roles in British and American productions. He directed his first film in 1989, Georg Elser—Einer aus Deutschland, with himself in the title role of the lone would-be assassin of Hitler.