Johannes Holzhausen was born in 1960 in Salzburg. After leaving school, he began a degree in art history at the University of Vienna in 1981.  From 1987 to 1995 he studied at the Vienna Film Academy where he made his first documentary, Those Loved by God, which was met with critical acclaim at numerous film festivals. After graduating from university, he spent five years working on his full-length documentary On the Seven Seas about a Soviet aircraft carrier.  He is cofounder and associate of Navigator Film, a Vienna based production company for creative documentaries since 1996. His films have featured at renowned international documentary festivals throughout Europe and have been purchased and/or co-produced by European broadcasters like Canal+, WDR, ORF, ARTE, DSF, ZDF, BR.