The European Film Academy is honoring German filmmaker Wim Wenders with the European Lifetime Achievement Award.
Wenders, who has been nominated for three Oscars and a Grammy, is known for works such as the Road Movie trilogy (1974-1976), Paris, Texas (1984), and Wings of Desire (1987).
“With this award, we celebrate Wim Wenders’ outstanding body of work which keeps exploring and experimenting with a curious 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 Chairman from 1990 until 1995 and President until 2020, Wim Wenders has a strong connection to the European Film Academy and we’re additionally happy to also celebrate his outstanding commitment and say thank you.”
Wenders began his career as a film critic for various German publications, and was later a founding member of film distributor Filmverlag der Autoren.
In 1975, he started his own production company in Berlin, Road Movies. Often hailed as one of the most important German directors on the international scene, Wenders has accumulated a myriad of international awards, including the German Film Award for the Road Movie trilogy, the Golden Lion for The State of Things and the Palme d’Or and BAFTA for Paris, Texas.
He has also made several documentaries, including Lightning Over Water, Tokyo-Ga, and Notebook on Cities and Clothes. His 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 an Academy Award, as did his 3D dance documentary Pina in 2011. Another Oscar nomination followed in 2015 for The Salt of the Earth about the Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado.
In 2012, he and his wife Donata Wenders initiated the Wim Wenders Foundation, gathering all of 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 Honour in Locarno (2005), an Honorary Golden Bear in 2015 and the Prix Lumiere in Lyon in 2023.
In 2023, Wenders returned 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, which won the best actor award in Cannes and was subsequently nominated for an Oscar.
Wenders will be an honorary guest and receive his honor at the 37th European Film Awards Ceremony on Dec. 7 in Lucerne.
