Director Wim Wenders awarded European Lifetime Achievement Award

The European Film Academy awards German director Wim Wenders the European Lifetime Achievement Award.

Wenders, who has been nominated for three Oscars and a Grammy, is known for works such as Film on the road trilogy (1974-1976), Paris, Texas (1984), and The Wings of Desire (1987).

“With this award we celebrate the exceptional body of work of Wim Wenders, who continues to explore and experiment with an inquisitive eye and an open mind,” said Matthijs Wouter Knol, CEO and Director of the European Film Academy. “As one of the founding members of the European Film Academy, its President from 1990 to 1995 and President until 2020, Wim Wenders has a strong connection to the European Film Academy and we are also delighted to celebrate his exceptional commitment and to thank him.”

Wenders began his career as a film critic for several German publications and was later a founding member of the film distributor Filmverlag der Autoren.

In 1975 he founded his own production company in Berlin, Street FilmOften hailed as one of the most important German directors on the international scene, Wenders has amassed a myriad of international awards, including the German Film Award for Film on the road trilogy, the Golden Lion for The state of things and the Palme d'Or and the BAFTA for Paris, Texas.

He has also made several documentaries, including Lightning on the water, Tokyo GaAND Notebook about cities and clothesHis most famous documentary, Buena Vista Social Club (1999), about a group of legendary Cuban musicians, won a European Film Award and was nominated for an Oscar, as was his 3D dance documentary Pineapple in 2011. Another Oscar nomination followed in 2015 for The salt of the earth on Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado.

In 2012, he and his wife Donata Wenders founded the Wim Wenders Foundation, collecting all his creative work and making it permanently accessible to the public. Wenders was a founding member and president of the European Film Academy from 1996 to 2020. He received the Leopard of Honor in Locarno (2005), an Honorary Golden Bear in 2015 and the Lumiere Award in Lyon in 2023.

In 2023 Wenders returns to Cannes with two films: the 3D documentary Anselm about the German painter and sculptor Anselm Kiefer and the feature film Perfect days with Kōji Yakusho as a Tokyo toilet cleaner, who won the Best Actor Award at Cannes and was later nominated for an Oscar.

Wenders will be a guest of honour and receive his award at the 37th European Film Awards ceremony on 7 December in Lucerne.

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