A novel directional backlight system based on volume-holographic optical elements (VHOEs) is demonstrated for time-sequential autostereoscopic three-dimensional (3-D) flat-panel displays. Here, VHOEs are employed to control the direction of light for a time-multiplexed display for each of the left and the right view. Those VHOEs are fabricated by recording interference patterns between collimated reference beams and diverging object beams for each of the left and right eyes on the volume holographic recording material. For this, self-developing photopolymer films (Bayfol® HX) were used, since those simplify the manufacturing process of VHOEs substantially. Here, the directional lights are similar to the collimated reference beams that were used to record the VHOEs and create two diffracted beams similar to the object beams used for recording the VHOEs. Then, those diffracted beams read the left and right images alternately shown on the LCD panel and form two converging viewing zones in front of the user's eyes. By this he can perceive the 3-D image. Theoretical predictions and experimental results are presented and the performance of the developed prototype is shown.