Biography

Wim Wenders was born on August 14, 1945 in Düsseldorf. He lived in Düsseldorf, Koblenz and in the Ruhr District, where he graduated at a “Humanistisches Gymnasium” in Oberhausen. After 2 years of studying medicine and philosophy and a year-long stay in Paris as a painter, he attended the Academy of Film and Television in Munich from 1967 to 1970. From 1968 to 1972 he worked as a film critic for "Filmkritik" and "Süddeutsche Zeitung", among other publications. In 1971 he was one of the founding members of “Filmverlag der Autoren”, the driving force behind the “New German Cinema”. In 1975 he started his own production company in Berlin, “Road Movies”. In 1984 he became a member of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. He’s a doctor h.c. of the Sorbonne University in Paris and of the theological faculty of the University of Fribourg. From 1991 to 1996 he was the appointed Chairman of the European Film Academy, of which he is the elected President since. Presently he is teaching film as a professor at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg. Together with his partner Peter Schwartzkopff he produces out of Berlin, with their company Reverse Angle. Wim Wenders lives in Los Angeles, New York and Berlin.