Wim Wenders is one of the main auteurs of the New German Cinema of the 1970s, along with Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Werner Herzog. With his film The American Friend (1977), Wenders gained both international recognition and a nomination for the Palme d’Or, which he finally won with Paris, Texas (1984).
His 1987 film Wings of Desire brought him the Best Director Award at Cannes and became his biggest success. In 1993, he received the Grand Jury Prize at the same festival with the film Faraway, so Close!. Since 1990, Wenders has described himself as a nonfiction filmmaker, directing several publicly acclaimed documentaries such as Buena Vista Social Club (1999) and Pina (2011), both nominated for Oscars.
The 2015 edition of LEFFEST paid tribute to the director with both a full retrospective of his work and the photographic exhibition "In the Daylight even Sounds Shine - Wim Wenders Discovering Portugal". One of his most recent works, The Beautiful Days of Aranjuez, was nominated for the Golden Lion in Venice (2016) and his latest documentary work, Pope Francis: A Man of His Word, premiered in Cannes in 2018.