His first short, Because, shown at the Hof Film Festival in 1991, was followed by his first feature Deadly Maria in 1993. Together with Stefan Arndt, he founded X-Filme Creative Pool. They were joined by Wolfgang Becker and Dani Levy. Tom Tykwer and Wolfgang Becker co-wrote Life Is All You Get (Das Leben ist eine Baustelle) (1994). In late 1997, Tykwer's Wintersleepers was released.

Everything changed in 1998: on August 20, Lola rennt / Run Lola Run was released in Germany. At the German Film Awards, Lola won in eight categories. In 2001, The Princess And the Warrior (also starring Franka Potente) was released in the US.

Franka Potente went on to star in major Hollywood productions, like Blow with Johnny Depp and The Bourne Identity with Matt Daemon. The new Marlene Dietrich, Franka Potente is the only post-war German actress who has become a major international star.

Tykwer's Perfume was released in September 2006.