PRELUDE 2017

Though the year has only just begun, the horizon is already fast approaching. When it comes to both Wim Wenders’ creative work and that of the foundation, the onset of the new year offers us ample opportunity to recall the milestones of the previous year and to focus our gaze on that which is yet to come.

A LOOK BACK…



With the presentation of the 3rd annual Wim Wenders Grant, the Wim Wenders Stiftung and Film- und Medienstiftung NRW honored four young filmmakers for their uncompromising vision and originality. This central column in our work to support young talent also underwent further conceptual development in 2016. For the first time, a colloquium was held on the eve of the presentation ceremony, in which the grant recipients from 2014 and 2015 and members of the jury came together to share and discuss their experiences.

We are delighted to see the further dissemination of the early cinematic work moving forward, which has been made possible by the foundation’s most recent projects in the area of digital restoration: in Germany the Blu-ray edition Wim Wenders – die frühen Jahre (Studio-Canal) was released, while the Road Trilogy (Blu-ray/DVD, Criterion) appeared to much acclaim in the USA.

Numerous film screenings and retrospectives provided fresh chances to approach the whole of the cinematic work, including among other events the comprehensive Wim Wenders Retrospective, featuring 25 films, presented by the Goethe-Institut in Wroclaw (European Capital of Culture 2016).

We would like to take this opportunity to extend a special thanks to all of our longtime friends and supporters, partners, colleagues and collaborators. Every truly great accomplishment is indeed the product of an entire community.

… AND AHEAD 
 


The support of young filmmakers and researchers also remains one of the foundation’s central missions in 2017. Early on in the year, the University of Richmond is extending an invitation to participate in a conference entitled Change is Possible and Necessary: New Perspectives on Wim Wenders as Filmmaker and Visual Critic (February 24th-25th 2017). WWS managing director Laura Schmidt will be contributing a lecture on multi-medial spaces in the work of Wim Wenders to the symposium.

The safeguarding, maintenance and preservation of further key works are also on the agenda for 2017. These efforts enable the foundation to reintroduce the films of Wim Wenders to the public ­– often after decades of inaccessibility. We will be informing everyone about our next steps in this regard over the course of the year.

We are happy to have reached so many of our goals along the way thus far and look forward to further impulses, co-operations and areas of activity in Düsseldorf, NRW and all across the world. The WWS team at our foundation headquarters in Düsseldorf was expanded at the end of the past year with the addition of new staff members Hannah Huber and Anika Lecomte.

In conclusion, we would like to share a timely programming tip: THE BEAUTIFUL DAYS OF ARANJUEZ, Wim Wenders’ latest screen adaptation, based on his longtime friend and companion Peter Handke’s play of the same name, is now playing in German cinemas following its theater release on January 26th.

For more information, we invite you to take a look at the WW calendar and at our Facebook page.

 

Photo: film still from WINGS OF DESIRE, Wim Wenders 1987 © Argos/Wim Wenders Stiftung