Gleb Anatolyevich Panfilov was born on December, 21st, 1934 in Magnitogorsk. In 1957 he graduated from the Chemistry Technological Faculty of the Ural Polytechnical Institute. Initially he worked as a master and an engineer at a factory in Sverdlovsk, and also worked on Sverdlovsk TV. In 1959-1961 Gleb was the head of department of propagation the Sverdlovsk Komsomol committee. In 1960-1963 he studied by correspondence at the Cameramen’s Faculty of VGIK (workshop of A. Golovnya). In 1965 he graduated Director's Branch of VKSR (workshop of L. Trauberg). His first full-length feature film No Crossing Under Fire (1967) at once received high appreciation of critics. During shooting of his second film The Beginning (1970) he married the starring actress Inna Churikova who became his true muse and appeared in most of his works. In all his films Panfilov acted as the author or the co-author of scenarios.

Gleb Panfilov worked as a film director at the Lenfilm and Mosfilm studios and conducted director's workshop in VKSR. In 1991 Gleb Panfilov founded the film studio “Vera” named in honour of his mother.

February 2006 saw the broadcast of the film which Gleb Anatolyevich had nurtured for almost 30 years – The First Circle after Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s novel. In 2008 premiere of the director’s new film Guilty Without Guilt based on Ostrovsky’s play took place on Russian TV.

His theatrical works included the famous Hamlet (1986), ... Sorry (1992) staged in Lenkom Theatre.