Filmography
| Year | Title | Role |
| 2025 | Ghost Elephants (2025) | Director, Narrator, Producer, Screenwriter, Writer |
| 2023 | The Arc of Oblivion (2023) | Executive Producer |
| 2022 | Berlin & Beyond: Werner Herzog – Radical Dreamer | Self |
| 2022 | Theater Of Thought (2022) | Director, Executive Producer, Screenwriter |
| 2019 | Tattoo Uprising | Self |
| 2019 | Nomad: In The Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin | Director, Screenwriter |
| 2018 | BALLAD OF A RIGHTEOUS MERCHANT | Self |
| 2018 | The Great Buster: A Celebration | Self |
| 2018 | Meeting Gorbachev | Director, Self, Writer |
| 2017 | TCFF - A GRAY STATE | Executive Producer |
| 2016 | Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World | Director, Narrator, Producer, Writer |
| 2016 | Salt and Fire | Director, Producer, Screenwriter |
| 2016 | Into the Inferno | Director, Self, Writer |
| 2015 | Queen of the Desert | Director, Screenwriter |
| 2014 | Red Army | Executive Producer |
| 2014 | The Look of Silence | Executive Producer |
| 2013 | The Wind Rises (Kaze Tachinu) | Castorp |
| 2013 | From One Second to the Next | Director |
| 2012 | Jack Reacher (2012) | The Zec |
| 2012 | Death Row | Director, Screenwriter |
| 2012 | Dinotasia | Narrator |
| 2012 | The Act of Killing | Executive Producer |
| 2011 | Into the Abyss | Director, Narrator |
| 2010 | Cave of Forgotten Dreams | Director, Narrator, Writer |
| 2010 | Happy People: A Year in the Taiga | Executive Producer, Screenwriter |
| 2009 | Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans | Director |
| 2009 | My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done | Director, Screenwriter |
| 2009 | Plastic Bag | Plastic Bag |
| 2008 | The Grand | The German |
| 2008 | Capturing Reality: The Art of Documentary | Self |
| 2007 | Rescue Dawn | Director, Writer |
| 2007 | Encounters at the End of the World | Director, Narrator, Screenwriter |
| 2007 | Mister Lonely | Father Umbrillo |
| 2005 | Grizzly Man | Director, Narrator, Writer |
| 2005 | The Wild Blue Yonder | Director, Writer |
| 2004 | Incident at Loch Ness | Producer, Self |
| 2004 | The White Diamond | Director |
| 2003 | Wheel of Time | Director, Producer, Voice, Writer |
| 2002 | Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet | Director |
| 2001 | INVINCIBLE/Invincible | Director, Producer, Writer |
| 1999 | My Best Fiend | Director, Narrator, Screenwriter |
| 1999 | Julien Donkey-Boy | Father |
| 1997 | Little Dieter Needs to Fly | Director, Narrator, Writer |
| 1995 | Death for Five Voices | Director |
| 1995 | Bells From the Deep | Director, Writer |
| 1992 | Lessons of Darkness | Director, Producer, Writer |
| 1991 | Scream of Stone | Director |
| 1990 | Echoes From a Somber Empire | Director, Producer, Writer |
| 1989 | Wodaabe: Herdsmen of the Sun | Director, Narrator, Writer |
| 1987 | Cobra Verde | Director, Writer |
| 1984 | The Dark Glow Of The Mountains | Director, Producer, Screenwriter |
| 1982 | Fitzcarraldo | Director, Producer, Writer |
| 1982 | Burden of Dreams | Self |
| 1981 | God's Angry Man | Director, Narrator, Writer |
| 1980 | Huie's Sermon | Director |
| 1979 | Nosferatu the Vampyre | Director, Producer, Writer |
| 1979 | Woyzeck | Director, Screenwriter |
| 1977 | Stroszek | Director, Writer |
| 1977 | La Soufrière | Director, Narrator |
| 1976 | Heart of Glass | Director, Producer, Writer |
| 1976 | How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck | Director |
| 1974 | The Great Ecstasy of the Woodcarver Steiner | Director, Narrator, Writer |
| 1974 | Enigma of Kasper Hauser | Director, Producer, Screenwriter |
| 1972 | Aguirre, the Wrath of God | Director, Producer, Writer |
| 1971 | Fata Morgana | Director |
| 1971 | Land of Silence and Darkness | Director, Screenwriter |
| 1970 | Even Dwarfs Started Small | Director, Producer, Screenwriter |
