PANDORA FILM was founded in 1981 by Karl Baumgartner and Reinhard Brundig and is now a leading European production company of international arthouse films. The company established itself as distributor with films such as YOL by Yilmaz Güney, NOSTALGHIA by Andrej Tarkovsky, DOWN BY LAW by Jim Jarmusch, I HIRED A CONTRACTKILLER by Aki Kaurismäki, ORLANDO by Sally Potter, THE PIANO by Jane Campion, UNDERGROUND by Emir Kusturica and FAREWELL TO MY CONCUBINE by Chen Kaige. Since the sale of the PANDORA FILM distribution to KINOWELT AG in 1998 PANDORA has expanded increasingly into the production sector. In 1995 the company reached a first high point of co-production activity with DEAD MAN by Jim Jarmusch, UNDERGROUND by Emir Kusturica and FLIRT by Hal Hartley, followed in 1996 with THE TANGO LESSON by Sally Potter and KAMA SUTRA by Mira Nair. Since 1996 PANDORA FILM has directly produced several projects whilst continuing with all other co-production activities.

In 1999 the PANDORA production BLACK CAT, WHITE CAT by Emir Kusturica won the prize for best directing at the Venice Film Festival and FULLMOON by Fredi Murer received the Grand Prix des Amériques at the Filmfestival Montreal. POLA X by Leos Carax and GHOST DOG by Jim Jarmusch were presented in competition of the 52. International Film Festival in Cannes. Bakhtiar Khudojnazarovs phantastic road-movie LUNA PAPA was also shown in 1999 at festivals in Venice, Toronto and Tokyo and was the official Oscar entry 2000. In Tokyo it had been awarded with the best artistic contribution award.

Also in 2000 Amos Kolleck's FAST FOOD, FAST WOMEN competed at the Film Festival in Cannes. HIMALAYA by Eric Valli had been nominated for the Academy Award in the category "Best Foreign Language Film".

At the Filmfestival in Berlin 2001 the company presented SUPER 8 STORIES BY EMIR KUSTURICA and Filipos Tsitos' MY SWEET HOME

In 1999 Christoph Friedel joined Pandora Film as Managing CEO and Producer.