Helmut Käutner (25 March 1908 – 20 April 1980) was a German film director active mainly in the 1940s and 1950s. He entered the film industry at the end of the Weimar Republic and released his first films as a director in Nazi Germany. Käutner is relatively unknown outside of Germany, although he is considered one of the best filmmakers in German film history. He was one of the most influential film directors of German post-war cinema and became known for his sophisticated literary adaptations.

He was born in Düsseldorf, Germany. Käutner started out as a director in the Nazi era, but his films remained largely free of Nationalsocialist propaganda. One of his early successes was Romanze in Moll (1943), an adaptation of Guy du Maupassant’s short story “Les Bijoux". Other remarkable films were Große Freiheit Nr. 7 and Under the Bridges.

His 1956 film Der Hauptmann von Köpenick was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 29th Academy Awards. Three years later, his film The Rest Is Silence was entered into the 9th Berlin International Film Festival. He died in Castellina in Chianti, Italy. Käutner made two films for Universal Pictures in Hollywood: The Restless Years (1958) and A Stranger in My Arms (1959). However, neither of them received critical success and Käutner was unhappy with the lack of creative freedom he had, so he returned to Germany.