The German Film Academy announced on Tuesday that it will honor director Wim Wenders with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Wenders will be honored at the 76th German Film Awards in Berlin on May 29.
Announcing the honor, Academy President Florian Gallenberger called the 80-year-old academy director Paris, Texas, Wings of desireand Perfect days“,”A completely unique film director [who] He has been an icon of world cinema for more than five decades.
A prominent figure on the international art scene, Wenders won top prizes at the Cannes Film Festival (L.E.). Paris, Texas in 1984) and the Venice Film Festival (for TIt is the state of things (1982), a three-time Academy Award nominee for documentary Buena Vista Social Club (2000), Between us (2012), and Salt of the earth (2015). His 2023 feature Perfect daysFilmed in Japan, it was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best International Film. Wenders will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the European Film Academy in 2024.
A jury, appointed by the Council of the German Academy, selected Wenders for this honor. Along with Gallenberger, this year’s jury included actor Pierre Senussi Bliss, producer Ingo Fleiss, casting director Nina Haun, directors Julia von Heyns and Anders Viel, talent agent Mechthild Holter, and distributor Tim Oberweland.
The decision can be seen as a sign of the German film industry’s solidarity with the famous director, who came under fire at this year’s Berlin Film Festival for his public comments that “we, as filmmakers, have to stay out of politics.” The comments, made at a Berlinale press conference in response to a question about Israel and Gaza, sparked online outrage and led to allegations that Wenders was calling for censorship. More than 100 artists, including Tilda Swinton, Javier Bardem and Adam McKay, signed an open letter criticizing Wenders and the Berlinale for allegedly “censoring artists who oppose the ongoing genocide in Israel.” [in Gaza]”.
At the Berlinale awards ceremony, Wenders, in his capacity as president of the international jury, gave a more detailed and nuanced explanation of his comments, arguing that the work of political activists and film artists was distinct, but complementary. The language of cinema is “very nuanced” and “empathetic,” while “the language of social media is powerful,” Wenders said.
He pointed to the highly political films honored by the Berlinale jury, including a film by German director Ilker Katak Yellow lettersAbout the Turkish government’s repression of artistic freedom, for which he won the Golden Bear and the Jury Prize Salvationby Turkish director Emin Alper, is the story of a massacre in a small village, which, in the director’s words, is an allegory for multiple global atrocities, including recent events in Palestine and Iran.
