Rolf Giesen, born 1953 in Moers, is a German film scholar, film journalist and non-fiction writer. He is widely regarded as one of the foremost experts for fantastic cinema, animation film and horror film in Germany. He has studied sociology, psychology and ancient history at the Freie Universität in Berlin and took his doctorate in 1979 with a dissertation on fantastic cinema. He has published numerous articles and books about fantasy, science fiction and horror cinema and the various technics of animation film which is one of his main areas of interest. From 1982 to 1984 he was chairman of the German animation film association (Deutscher Trickfilmverband e.V.) and has organized several cartoon film festivals. The Rolf-Giesen-Sammlung at the Deutsche Kinematek in Berlin is one of the best collections focused on fantastic cinema in Europe.
Apart from lectureships at various universities, colleges and film academies Giesen also teaches as a honorary professor at the German film school for digital production (Akademie für digitale Medienproduktion). He is associate professor at the university of Beijing, where he gave some lectures in 2007, and member of the Visual Effects Society in Los Angeles. He lives and works alternating between Berlin and Beijing.