Bio: Wim Wenders is an Oscar-nominated German filmmaker who was born Ernst Wilhelm Wenders on August 14, 1945 in D��sseldorf, which then was located in the British Occupation Zone of what became the Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Federal Republic of Germany, known colloquially as West Germany until reunification). At university, Wenders originally studied to become a physician before switching to philosophy before terminating his studies in 1965. Moving to Paris, he intended to become a painter.He fell in love with the cinema but failed to gain admission to the French national film school. He supported himself as an engraver while attending movie houses. Upon his return to West Germany in 1967, he was employed by United Artists at its D��sseldorf office before he was accepted by the University of Television and Film Munich school for its autumn 1967 semester, where he remained until 1970. While attending film school, he worked as a newspaper film critic. In addition to shorts, he made a feature film as part of his studies, Summer in the City (1971).Wenders gained recognition as part of the German New Wave of the 1970s. Other directors that were part of the New German Cinema were Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Werner Herzog. His second feature, a film made from Peter Handke's novel The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick (1972), brought him acclaim, as did Alice in the Cities (1974) and Kings of the Road (1976). It was his 1977 feature The American Friend (1977) ("The American Friend"), starring Dennis Hopper as Patricia Highsmith's anti-hero Tom Ripley, that represented his international breakthrough. He was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1977 Cannes Film Festival for "The American Friend", which was cited as Best Foreign Film by the National Board of Review in the United States.Francis Ford Coppola, as producer, gave Wenders the chance to direct in America, but Hammett (1982) (1982) was a critical and commercial failure. However, his American-made Paris, Texas (1984) (1984) received critical hosannas, winning three awards at Cannes, including the Palme d'Or, and Wenders won a BAFTA for best director. "Paris, Texas" was a prelude to his greatest success, 1987's Wings of Desire (1987) ("Wings of Desire"), which he made back in Germany. The film brought him the best director award at Cannes and was a solid hit, even spawning an egregious Hollywood remake.Wenders followed it up with a critical and commercial flop in 1991, Until the End of the World (1991) ("Until the End of the World"), though Faraway, So Close! (1993) won the Grand Prize of the Jury at Cannes. Still, is reputation as a feature film director never quite recovered in the United States after the bomb that was "Until the End of the World." Since the mid-1990s, Wenders has distinguished himself as a non-fiction filmmaker, directing several highly acclaimed documentaries, most notably Buena Vista Social Club (1999) and Pina (2011), both of which brought him Oscar nominations.
Tivia: Considers Yasujir? Ozu to be his all-time grandmaster.He has been infertile since an illness in childhood.Donated his $5,000 Cannes prize for Wings of Desire (1987) to Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan.President of the 'Official Competition' jury at the 42nd Cannes International Film Festival in 1989.He worked with all of his wives on at least one movie: With Edda K?chl: Alice in the Cities (1974), Summer in the City (1971) and The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick (1972); with Lisa Kreuzer: Alice in the Cities (1974), The American Friend (1977), Wrong Move (1975) and Kings of the Road (1976); with Isabelle Weingarten: The State of Things (1982); with Ronee Blakley: Lightning Over Water (1980), Hammett (1982) and I Played It for You (1985) and with Donata Wenders: Beyond the Clouds (1995), Arisha, der B?r und der steinerne Ring (1992), Buena Vista Social Club (1999), The End of Violence (1997), Lisbon Story (1994), Land of Plenty (2004) and The Million Dollar Hotel (2000).President of the 'Official Competition' jury at the 65th Venice International Film Festival in 2008. He reportedly argued with the festival's artistic director over the award rules and disliked the experience so much, that he vowed to never be part of a festival jury again.His book "Emotion Pictures", a collection of diary essays written while he was a film student, was adapted and broadcast as a series of plays on BBC Radio 3.Many of his films are indebted to Nicholas Ray, which is proved by the expressionistic use of color in The American Friend (1977) or the title of Until the End of the World (1991) (Until The End of The World), the last spoken words in Ray's King of Kings (1961). Kings of the Road (1976) also lovingly lifts a scene from Ray's The Lusty Men (1952). His movie Lightning Over Water (1980) is a documentary about Nicholas Ray's last days.After studying medicine, philosophy and sociology in Munich, Freiburg and D��sseldorf, he joined the Munich Academy for Television and Film (HFF) in 1968.President of the European Film Academy.Wender's Gray City, Inc. Manhattan office overlooks 11 East 14th Street, the site of D. W. Griffith's American Biograph studio, whose brownstone has been replaced by a white condominium.He has directed one film that has been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Buena Vista Social Club (1999).He closed Belgrade Film Festival - FEST 2006.Uncle of Hella Wenders.Born on exactly the same date as comic legend Steve Martin.Graduated from the Hochschule Fur Film & Fernsehen.Attended Munich's Academy of Film and Television (HFF M��nchen) from 1967 to 1970.Is also a photographer.Nephew of Margarete Hafner.As of 2022, his three Oscar nominations came from documentary features rather than his fictional films (none of them were Oscar nominated).