Wim Wenders to Head Berlin Film Festival Jury

Celebrated German director Wim Wenders will serve as the jury president at the 76th Berlin Film Festival in February.

The trailblazing filmmaker, who is one of the pioneers of the New German Cinema movement, has worked across both fiction and documentary over his six-decade career. His most recent narrative film, “Perfect Days,” earned an Oscar nomination for best international feature. Wenders’ documentaries “Buena Vista Social Club” (1999), “Pina” (2011) and “The Salt of the Earth” (2014) have also been Oscar-nominated in the best doc category. His best known fiction work includes “Paris, Texas,” which won Cannes’ Palme d’Or in 1984; his Road Movie trilogy comprising “Alice in the Cities” (1974), “The Wrong Move” (1975) and “Kings of the Road” (1976); and the Berlin-set romantic fantasy “Wings of Desire” (1987).

“Wim Wenders is one of the most influential voices in international cinema. For six decades, he has made films that move and delight us with their humanity and sense of wonder,” said Berlinale director Tricia Tuttle in a statement. “His insatiable curiosity and deep mastery of film language are evident in every work, whether he is exploring the gifts of other artists or illuminating our own search for meaning and connection. To say we are proud of this homegrown polymath is an understatement, and we cannot wait to see where jury president Wim Wenders leads our jury in picking the Golden and Silver Bear winners of the 76th Berlinale.”

Added Wenders, “It never hit me to even remotely think about being jury president in my hometown until Tricia Tuttle asked me. And then I realized: Wow! That’ll be a whole new way to see films at the Berlinale, for once watch each and every one in the competition and discuss them all in-depth with a group of intelligent and movie-loving people. How good can it get? I’m grateful to Tricia to invite me to this rare experience.”

In 2003, Wenders was one of the founding members of the German Film Academy and is also a co-founder of the European Film Academy, of which he served as president from 1996 to 2020. In 2015, he received the Berlinale’s Honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement.

This year’s Berlinale will take place Feb. 12-22.