Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders (; born 14 August 1945) is a German filmmaker, playwright, author, and photographer. He is a major figure in

New German Cinema New German Cinema (german: Neuer Deutscher Film) is a period in German cinema which lasted from 1962 to 1982, in which a new generation of directors emerged who, working with low budgets, and influenced by the French New Wave and Italian Neore ...

. Among many honors, he has received three nominations for the

Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosoph ...

: for ''

Buena Vista Social Club Buena Vista Social Club is an ensemble of Cuban musicians established in 1996. The project was organized by World Circuit executive Nick Gold, produced by American guitarist Ry Cooder and directed by Juan de Marcos González. They named the gr ...

'' (1999), about Cuban music culture; ''

Pina Pina may refer to: People * Pina (name), a list of people with the given name, nickname, surname or stage name Places * Pina, Nepal, a village development committee * Pina, Mallorca, Spain, a town * Pina de Ebro, a municipality of the provin ...

'' (2011), about the contemporary dance choreographer

Pina Bausch Philippine "Pina" Bausch (27 July 1940 – 30 June 2009) was a German dancer and choreographer who was a significant contributor to a neo-expressionist dance tradition now known as . Bausch's approach was noted for a stylized blend of dance m ...

; and '' The Salt of the Earth'' (2014), about Brazilian photographer

Sebastião Salgado Sebastião Ribeiro Salgado Júnior (born February 8, 1944) is a Brazilian social documentary photographer and photojournalist. He has traveled in over 120 countries for his photographic projects. Most of these have appeared in numerous press pu ...

. One of Wenders's earliest honors was a win for the

BAFTA Award for Best Direction The BAFTA Award for Best Direction, formerly known as David Lean Award for Achievement in Direction, is a British Academy Film Award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to a film director for a specifi ...

for his narrative drama ''

Paris, Texas Paris is a city and county seat of Lamar County, Texas, United States. Located in Northeast Texas at the western edge of the Piney Woods, the population of the city was 24,171 in 2020. History Present-day Lamar County was part of Red River ...

'' (1984), which also won the

Palme d'Or The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...

at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival. Many of his subsequent films have also been recognized at Cannes, including ''

Wings of Desire ''Wings of Desire'' (, ; ) is a 1987 romantic fantasy film written by Wim Wenders, Peter Handke and Richard Reitinger, and directed by Wenders. The film is about invisible, immortal angels who populate Berlin and listen to the thoughts of its ...

'' (1987), for which he won the Best Director Award at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival. Wenders has been the president of the

European Film Academy The European Film Academy is an initiative of a group of European filmmakers who came together in Berlin on the occasion of the first presentation of the European Film Awards in November 1988. The Academy—under the name of European Cinema Soc ...

in Berlin since 1996. Alongside filmmaking, he is an active photographer, emphasizing images of desolate landscapes. He is considered an

auteur An auteur (; , 'author') is an artist with a distinctive approach, usually a film director whose filmmaking control is so unbounded but personal that the director is likened to the "author" of the film, which thus manifests the director's unique ...

director.

Early life

Wenders was born in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

into a traditionally Catholic family. His father, Heinrich Wenders, was a surgeon. The Dutch name "Wim" is a shortened version of the baptismal name "Wilhelm". As a boy, Wenders took unaccompanied trips to

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

to visit the Rijksmuseum. He graduated from high school in Oberhausen in the

Ruhr area The Ruhr ( ; german: Ruhrgebiet , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr area, sometimes Ruhr district, Ruhr region, or Ruhr valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 2,800/km ...

. He then studied medicine at the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially german: Uni Freiburg), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (german: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemb ...

(1963–64) and philosophy at the

University of Dusseldorf A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

(1964–65), but dropped out and moved to Paris in October 1966 in order to become a painter. Wenders failed his entry test at France's national film school, IDHEC (now

La Fémis La Fémis (French: ''École Nationale Supérieure des Métiers de l'Image et du Son''; "National Superior School for the Professions of Image and Sound", formerly known as the '' Institut des hautes études cinématographiques'', IDHEC) is a Fre ...

), and instead became an engraver at

Johnny Friedlaender Johnny Friedlaender (26 December 1912 – 18 June 1992) was a leading German/French 20th-century artist, whose works have been exhibited in Germany, France, Netherlands, Italy, Japan and the United States. He has been influential upon oth ...

's studio in

Montparnasse Montparnasse () is an area in the south of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. Montparnasse has bee ...

. During this time Wenders became fascinated with cinema, and saw up to five movies a day at the local movie theater. Set on making his obsession his life's work, he returned to Germany in 1967 to work in the Düsseldorf office of

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the studi ...

. That fall, he entered the

University of Television and Film Munich The University of Television and Film Munich (German: Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München, short: HFF Munich) is a publicly funded film school in Munich, Germany. The school was established in 1966 by decree of the Bavarian government. T ...

(HFF). Between 1967 and 1970, while at the HFF, he also worked as a film critic for ''FilmKritik'', the Munich daily newspaper '' Süddeutsche Zeitung'', ''

Twen ''Twen'' was a West German magazine that was published from 1959 to 1971, and known for its innovative design and typography. History and profile ''Twen'' was launched in 1959 as a bimonthly magazine and the first issue appeared in April 1959. ...

'' magazine, and '' Der Spiegel''. Wenders completed several short films before graduating from the Hochschule with a 16mm black-and-white film, '' Summer in the City'' (1970), his feature directorial debut.

Career

Wenders's career began in the late 1960s, the

era. Much of the distinctive

cinematography Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens to foc ...

in his movies is the result of a long-term collaboration with Dutch cinematographer

Robby Müller Robby Müller, NSC, BVK, (4 April 1940 – 3 July 2018) was a Dutch cinematographer. Known for his use of natural light and minimalist imagery, Müller first gained recognition for his contributions to West German cinema through his acclaimed c ...

. ''

'' and ''

'' were the result of collaborations with ''avant-garde'' authors

Sam Shepard Samuel Shepard Rogers III (November 5, 1943 – July 27, 2017) was an American actor, playwright, author, screenwriter, and director whose career spanned half a century. He won 10 Obie Awards for writing and directing, the most by any write ...

and

Peter Handke Peter Handke (; born 6 December 1942) is an Austrian novelist, playwright, translator, poet, film director, and screenwriter. He was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature "for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored t ...

. Handke's novel '' The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick'' was adapted for Wenders's second feature film, '' The Goalkeeper's Fear of the Penalty''. Handke co-wrote the script for ''

''.

Wenders has directed several highly acclaimed documentaries, most notably ''

'' (1999), about Cuban musicians, and '' The Soul of a Man'' (2003), on American blues. He also directed a documentary-style film on the Skladanowsky brothers, known in English as ''A Trick of the Light''. The Skladanowsky brothers were inventing "moving pictures" when several others like the

Lumière brothers Lumière is French for 'light'. Lumiere, Lumière or Lumieres may refer to: * Lumières, the philosophical movement in the Age of Enlightenment People *Auguste and Louis Lumière, French pioneers in film-making Film and TV * Institut Lumière, ...

and

William Friese-Greene William Friese-Greene (born William Edward Green, 7 September 1855 – 5 May 1921) was a prolific English inventor and professional photographer. He was known as a pioneer in the field of motion pictures, having devised a series of cameras in 1 ...

were doing the same. ''

'' and his documentaries on

, ''

'', and Sebastiao Salgado, '' The Salt of the Earth'', received nominations for the

. Wenders has also directed many music videos for groups such as U2 and

Talking Heads Talking Heads were an American rock band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991.Talki ...

, including "

Stay (Faraway, So Close!) "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)" is a song by rock band U2. It is the fifth track on their 1993 album, '' Zooropa'', and was released as the album's third single on 22 November 1993. The song reached number one in Ireland and reached the top 10 in ...

" and " Sax and Violins". His television commercials include a UK advertisement for Carling Premier Canadian beer. Wenders's book ''Emotion Pictures'', a collection of diary essays written as a film student, was adapted and broadcast as a series of plays on BBC Radio 3, featuring Peter Capaldi as Wenders, with

Gina McKee Georgina "Gina" McKee (born 14 April 1964) is an English actress. She won the 1997 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for '' Our Friends in the North'' (1996), and earned subsequent nominations for '' The Lost Prince'' (2003) and '' The Street'' ...

Saskia Reeves Saskia Reeves (born 16 August 1961) is an English actress, best known for her roles in the films '' Close My Eyes'' (1991) and ''I.D.'' (1995), the 2000 miniseries ''Frank Herbert's Dune'' and the 2016 film '' Our Kind of Traitor''. Early lif ...

, Dennis Hopper,

Harry Dean Stanton Harry Dean Stanton (July 14, 1926 – September 15, 2017) was an American actor, musician, and singer. In a career that spanned more than six decades, Stanton played supporting roles in films including ''Cool Hand Luke'' (1967), ''Kelly's Heroes ...

and

Ricky Tomlinson Eric "Ricky" Tomlinson (born 26 September 1939) is an English actor. He is best known for his television roles as Bobby Grant in '' Brookside'', DCI Charlie Wise in ''Cracker'' and Jim Royle in '' The Royle Family'', and playing the titular cha ...

, dramatised by Neil Cargill. In 2015, Wenders collaborated with artist/journalist and longtime friend Melinda Camber Porter on a documentary feature about his body of work, ''Wim Wenders – Visions on Film'', when Porter died. The film remains incomplete. Wenders is a member of the advisory board of

World Cinema Foundation The World Cinema Project (WCP), formerly World Cinema Foundation, is a non-profit organization devoted to the preservation and restoration of neglected world cinema, founded by Martin Scorsese. History Founded in 2007 as the World Cinema Foundati ...

. The project was founded by

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of many major accolades, inclu ...

and aims to find and reconstruct world cinema films that have been neglected. As of 2015 he served as a Jury Member for the digital studio

Filmaka Jason Zachary Haikara is an American businessman, marketing executive, and producer. Jason Haikara currently is an independent marketing advisor and business strategist. He is also serving as producer on two upcoming music videos, "Key in the Doo ...

, a platform for undiscovered filmmakers to show their work to industry professionals. In 2011, Wenders was selected to stage the 2013 cycle of

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

's ''

Der Ring des Nibelungen (''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the '' Nibe ...

'' at the

Bayreuth Festival The Bayreuth Festival (german: link=no, Bayreuther Festspiele) is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of operas by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented. Wagner himself conceived ...

. The project fell through when he insisted on filming in 3-D, which the Wagner family found too costly and disruptive. In 2012, while promoting his 3-D dance film ''

'', Wenders told the

Documentary channel A documentary channel is a specialty channel which focuses on broadcasting documentaries. Some documentary channels further specialize by dedicating their television programming to specific types of documentaries or documentaries in a specific a ...

Blog that he had begun work on a new 3-D documentary about architecture.
He also said he would only work in 3-D from then on. Wenders had admired the dance choreographer

since 1985, but only with the advent of digital 3-D cinema did he decide that he could sufficiently capture her work on screen. In June 2017, Wenders stage-directed Georges Bizet's opera '' Les Pêcheurs de perles'', starring

Olga Peretyatko Olga Alexandrovna Peretyatko (russian: Ольга Александровна Перетятько, links=no; born 21 May 1980) is a Russian operatic soprano. She has been known for lyric and coloratura soprano roles, most notably in operas by Ros ...

and

Francesco Demuro Francesco Demuro (born 6 January 1978), is an Italian operatic tenor. He was born in Porto Torres, Sardinia. By the age of ten, Demuro made his first stage appearance, and by the age of twelve, he had joined the Minicantadores, a group of young s ...

and conducted by Daniel Barenboim at the

Berlin State Opera The (), also known as the Berlin State Opera (german: Staatsoper Berlin), is a listed building on Unter den Linden boulevard in the historic center of Berlin, Germany. The opera house was built by order of Prussian king Frederick the Great from ...

br>(Staatsoper)
In a 2018 interview, Wenders said his favorite movie of all time was his film about

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

, and that his entire career had been building up to it. His admiration for Francis is profound; he said he felt Francis is doing his best in a world full of calamities. He also said that, though raised Catholic, he had converted to Protestantism years earlier. In 2019 Wenders acted as executive producer for his former assistant director

Luca Lucchesi The last universal common ancestor (LUCA) is the most recent population from which all organisms now living on Earth share common descent—the most recent common ancestor of all current life on Earth. This includes all cellular organisms; t ...

's documentary ''A Black Jesus'', which has similar themes to ''Pope Francis: A Man of His Word.'' The film explores the role of religion in communal identity and how this can create or dissolve differences in a small Sicilian town during the height of the refugee crisis. Lucchesi noted that Wenders pushed the film to be more symbolic and philosophical, saying that Wenders wanted the film to have a "universal fairy-tale aspect" and to represent "Europe in a nutshell."

Photography

Wenders has worked with photographic images of desolate landscapes and themes of memory, time, loss, nostalgia and movement. He began his long-running project "Pictures from the Surface of the Earth" in the early 1980s and pursued it for 20 years. The initial photographic series was titled "Written in the West" and was produced while Wenders criss-crossed the American West in preparation for his film ''

'' (1984). It became the starting point for a nomadic journey across the globe, including Germany, Australia, Cuba, Israel and Japan, to take photographs capturing the essence of a moment, place or space.

Legacy and honors

Wenders has received many awards, including the Golden Lion for '' The State of Things'' at the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...

(1982); the

at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival for his movie ''

''; and Best Direction for ''

'' in the 1987

Bavarian Film Awards The Bavarian Film Awards (german: Bayerischer Filmpreis) have been awarded annually since 1979 by the state government of Bavaria in Germany for “exceptional achievement in German filmmaking.” Along with the German Film Awards, these are th ...

and the 1987 Cannes Film Festival. He won the

for Best Director for ''

Faraway, So Close! ''Faraway, So Close!'' (german: In weiter Ferne, so nah!) is a 1993 German fantasy film directed by Wim Wenders. The screenplay is by Wenders, Richard Reitinger and Ulrich Zieger. It is a sequel to Wenders' 1987 film '' Wings of Desire''. Actors ...

'' in 1993. In 2004, he received the Master of Cinema Award of the International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg. He was awarded the

Leopard of Honour The Leopard of Honour is a life's work achievement award at the Locarno International Film Festival held annually in Locarno, Switzerland. The award has been given out since 1989. The award especially denotes recognition of auteur cinema and cr ...

at the

Locarno International Film Festival The Locarno Film Festival is an annual film festival, held every August in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, ...

in 2005. In 2012, his dance film ''

'' was nominated for the Best Documentary Feature of the

84th Academy Awards The 84th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2011 in the United States and took place on February 26, 2012, at the Hollywood and Highland Center Theatre in H ...

. Wenders also received a nomination for the

Writers Guild of America Award for Best Documentary Screenplay A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, play ...

for the film. He has been awarded honorary doctorates by the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

in Paris in 1989, the

University of Fribourg The University of Fribourg (french: Université de Fribourg; german: Universität Freiburg) is a public university located in Fribourg, Switzerland. The roots of the university can be traced back to 1580, when the notable Jesuit Peter Canisi ...

(Switzerland) in 1995 and the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium in 2005. The Wim Wenders Foundation was established in Düsseldorf in 2012. The foundation provides a framework to bring together his cinematic, photographic, artistic and literary works in his native country and to make it permanently accessible to the public. Wenders was awarded the

Honorary Golden Bear The Honorary Golden Bear (german: Goldener Ehrenbar) is the Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international fil ...

at the

65th Berlin International Film Festival The 65th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 5 to 15 February 2015, with American film director Darren Aronofsky as the President of the Jury. German film director Wim Wenders was presented with the Honorary Golden Bear. The ...

in February 2015. In 2016, Wenders received the Großer Kulturpreis of the Sparkassen Culture-Foundation Rhineland, one of the highest-endowed cultural honorings in Germany, with previous winners such as photographer legend

Hilla Becher Hilla Becher (; 2 September 1934 – 10 October 2015) was a German conceptual photographer. Becher was well known for her industrial photographs, or typologies, with longtime collaborator and husband, Bernd Becher. Her career spanned more than ...

, sculptor

Tony Cragg Sir Anthony Douglas Cragg (born Liverpool 9 April 1949) is an Anglo-German sculptor, resident in Wuppertal, Germany since 1977. Early life and training Tony Cragg was born in Liverpool."Tony Cragg." ''Contemporary Artists''. Farmington Hills, ...

, musician

Wolfgang Niedecken Wolfgang Niedecken (, ; born 30 March 1951) is a German singer and musician. He founded the Kölsch-speaking rock group BAP at the end of the 1970s and soon became famous with BAP all over Germany. He is the lead singer and only remaining found ...

and director

Sönke Wortmann Sönke Wortmann (; 25 August 1959 in Marl, North Rhine-Westphalia) is a German film director and producer. Biography Wortmann's father was a miner. After Wortmann's A-Levels he wanted to become a professional football player and started playin ...

. In 2017, Wenders received the Douglas Sirk Award at the Hamburg Film Festival.

Personal life

Wenders lives and works in Berlin with his wife, Donata. He has lived in Berlin since the mid-1970s. He is an ecumenical Christian; as a teenager he wished to become a Catholic priest. He supports German football club

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional fo ...

. In 2009, Wenders signed a petition in support of director

Roman Polanski Raymond Roman Thierry Polański , group=lower-alpha, name=note_a ( né Liebling; 18 August 1933) is a French-Polish film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, tw ...

, who had been detained while traveling to a film festival in relation to his 1977 sexual abuse charges, which the petition argued would undermine the tradition of film festivals as a place for works to be shown "freely and safely" and argued that arresting filmmakers traveling to neutral countries could open the door to "actions of which no-one can know the effects."

Filmography

Films

Music videos and commercials

Other film work

Selected exhibitions

1986–1992

*Written in the West, in conjunction with the publication, Written in the West, Munich: Schirmer/Mosel (1987), touring exhibition: Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (1986); Encontros de Fotografia, Coimbra (1987); Palazzo della Triennale di Milano (1988); Film Society of Miami (1988); Goethe Institut, Stockholm (1988); Goethe Institut, Copenhagen (1988); Saint-Yrieix-La-Perche (1990); Städtische Galerie Schwarzes Kloster, Freiburg (Breisgau) (1992)

1989–1994

*Wim Wenders Photographs, touring exhibition: Galerie F. C Gundlach, Hamburg (1989); Galerie Marie-Louise Wirth, Zürich (1990); Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film, Munich (1991); Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles (1991); Shibuya Seibu Dept. Store, Tokyo (1992); Kiyomizu *Temple, Kyoto (1992);

Musée de l'Élysée Musée de l'Élysée is a museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, entirely devoted to photography. It is a government-supported institution founded in 1985 by Charles-Henri Favrod. It was housed in an 18th-century mansion until October 2020.

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR ...

(1992); Amerika Haus, Berlin (1992); Venice Biennale (1993); Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek (1993); Sala Parpallo Palau Dels Scala, Valencia (1994); San Telmo Museum, San Sebastian (1994)

1993–1995

*Wim Wenders Photo Exhibition, in conjunction with the publication, Once, Munich: Schirmer/ Mosel (2001), touring exhibition: Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome (1993); Villa delle Rose, Bologna (1994); FNAC, Paris (1994); Parco, Tokyo (1994); FNAC, Berlin (1995); Villa Rufolo, Ravello (1995)

1995

*Wim Wenders: Landscape and Memory, Gallery of Contemporary Photography, Santa Monica, California

1996

*Wim Wenders: Landscape and Memory, Gallery of Contemporary Photography, Santa Monica *Wim Wenders: Photos, in conjunction with the publication, Wim Wenders: Photos, Munich Goethe Institute (1996), Goethe Institutes worldwide

2000

*Buena Vista Social Club, Rose Gallery, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, California

2000–2004

*Pictures from the Surface of the Earth, touring exhibition: Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2001), Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao (2002), Haunch of Venison, London (2003); Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2003); City Art Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand; Millennium Art Museum, Beijing, China; Shanghai Museum of Art, Shanghai, China; Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China (2004)

2003

*Wim Wenders, James Cohan Gallery, New York *Wim Wenders, Galerie Judin Belot, Zurich, Switzerland

2004

*Pictures from the Surface of the Earth, Australia and Japan, James Cohan Gallery, New York *Between The Lines, group exhibition,

James Cohan Gallery James Cohan is a contemporary art gallery in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. History The gallery had a branch in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. It opened another in the former French Concession of Shanghai in 20 ...

, New York *Images of Time and Place: Contemporary Views of Landscape, group exhibition, Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx, New York *Wim Wenders, Galleria Marabini, Bologna, Italy *Through the Lens: Eight Photographers, group exhibition, C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland. Wendersinterview

2004–2005

*Pictures from the Surface of the Earth, ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus C, Denmark

2005

*The Forest: Politics, Poetics, and Practice, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina *Through the Lens, group exhibition, C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland

2006

*Wim Wenders: Immagini dal pianeta terra, Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome, Italy *Journey to Onomichi – Photos by Wim and Donata Wenders, Omotesando Hills, Tokyo, Japan *Pictures from the Surface of the Earth, images from touring exhibition, Salon of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, Serbia *Dark Places, curated by Joshua Decter, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, California

2010

*Places, strange and quiet, Museu de Arte de São Paulo, São Paulo, BR

2011

*Places, strange and quiet, Haunch of Venison, London, UK

2012

*Places Strange and Quiet, Ostlicht. Galerie Für Fotografie, Vienna, AT *Places, strange and quiet, Harald Falckenberg Exhibition Space, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, DE *Wim Wenders: Pictures from the Surface of the Earth,

Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow The Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow (MAMM; russian: link=no, Мультимедиа Арт Музей, Москва) is a Russian state museum dedicated to the presentation and development of contemporary art related to new multimedia technologies ...

, RU

2013

*Wim Wenders. Appunti di Viaggio. Armenia Giappone Germani. Villa Pignatelli, Naples, IT *Wim Wenders: Photographs, Fundació Sorigué, Leida, ES

2014

*Wim Wenders: Places Strange & Quiet, GL Strand, Copenhagen, DK *Wim Wenders: Urban Solitude, Palazzo Incontro, Rome, IT

2015

*Wim Wenders: America, Villa e collezione la Panza, Varese, IT *Wim Wenders: 4REAL & TRUE2. Wim Wenders. Landscapes and Photographs, Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, DE *"time capsules. by the side of the road. Wim Wenders' recent photographs",

BlainSouthern Blain, Southern was a contemporary art gallery with branches in London, Berlin and New York. It was started in September 2010 by Harry Blain and Graham Southern, who had sold their previous gallery, Haunch of Venison, to Christie's. The gall ...

, Berlin, DE *"In broad daylight even the sounds shine. Wim Wenders scouting in Portugal", curated by Anna Duque y González and Laura Schmidt Reservatório da Mãe d'Água das Amoreiras, Lisbon

2016

"The Space Between the Characters Can Carry the Load", Collection Ivo Wessel, Weserburg Museum for modern Art, Bremen, DE

2017/2018

"Instant Stories/Wim Wenders' Polaroids", The Photographers' Gallery, London, from 20 October 2017 to 11 February 2018.

Installation art

2019

''(E)motion''

2020

''Two or Three Things I Know About Edward Hopper''

2022

''Presence''

Selected bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

References

External links

* *
Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database

including biography, filmography and photos
Wim Wenders — Film — The Guardian
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wenders, Wim 1945 births Best Director BAFTA Award winners Best Director German Film Award winners Buena Vista Social Club Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Director winners Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Directors of Palme d'Or winners Directors of Golden Lion winners English-language film directors European Film Award for Best Director winners German Christians German expatriates in the United States Film people from Düsseldorf German film directors German music video directors Photographers from North Rhine-Westphalia German theatre directors 20th-century German photographers 21st-century German photographers 20th-century German male writers 21st-century German male writers Honorary Golden Bear recipients Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Kristián Award winners Living people Members of the Order of Merit of North Rhine-Westphalia Recipients of the Order of Merit of Berlin Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) University of Television and Film Munich alumni Postmodernist filmmakers