Wim Wenders Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

While in England, German director Wim Wenders was sandwiched between a press tour and a brief lunch when a member of his team walked into the restaurant to secretly signal across the room that he was nominated for his first feature film Oscar with Japan’s Best International Feature Film, Perfect Days. “Someone came in raising their thumb, which was the sign that we had agreed on, and no word was spoken because there were too many guests in the restaurant,” Wenders laughed while retelling the Tuesday nomination. “So, I knew then I could let that meal go a little cold. It was lovely because I had prepared myself to not expect anything. I had completely prepared myself to not be on the list so that I wouldn’t be disappointed. So [this nomination] was quite a surprise today.”

Poland‘s Ministry of Culture has dismissed Radosław Śmigulski as director of the Polish Film Institute (PFI) in a move that has sent shockwaves across the local film industry even if it was not wholly unexpected.

Veteran producer and sales agent Rosa Bosch has joined the Madrid-based distributor and international sales agency Begin Again Films. Bosch will serve as part of the company’s international department. 

Chinese comedy drama YOLO from Sony Pictures International had a yodeling good domestic debut, grossing $840k on 200 screens, making no. 9 on the weekend top 10. Directed and produced by and starring China’s top grossing female helmer, Jia Ling, it’s earned close to $482 million in China since opening Feb. 10 — and was the highest-grossing film over the Lunar New Year holiday.

Asian Film Awards. The 17th edition of the prizes was held at the Xiqu Centre, part of the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong. While “Evil Does Not Exist” and Korean blockbuster “12.12: The Day” had dominated the nominations with six each, including those in the best film category, the prizes on Sunday were much more evenly distributed.

Julio Torres’s directorial debut Problemista from A24 posted the highest per-screen average of the weekend with a solid limited opening, grossing $140.9k on five screens in New York and LA with multiple sold out Q&As.

Neon announced on Tuesday that it will bring Academy Award nominee Ava DuVernay‘s acclaimed drama Origin back to 500 U.S. theaters on February 28, for a one-night-only special screening event, featuring an exclusive pre-recorded introduction and post-screening Q&A with DuVernay.

Ellise Shafer Martin Scorsese was lauded with the Berlin Film Festival‘s honorary Golden Bear on Tuesday night, celebrating a lifetime of achievement in cinema. As he accepted the award, Scorsese — whose most recent film, “Killers of the Flower Moon,” is currently up for 10 Oscars — reflected on his career thus far and even teased a return to the festival “in a couple years.” Scorsese was introduced by German director Wim Wenders, who is also Oscar-nominated for his latest feature, “Perfect Days.” Wenders told a hilarious story, complete with a photo slideshow, about one of his earliest interactions with Scorsese at the Telluride Film Festival in 1978, where he came upon the director and his then-girlfriend Isabella Rossellini on the side of the road with a flat tire.

Martin Scorsese was presented with the Berlin Film Festival’s Honorary Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement on Tuesday evening, with old friend German director Wim Wenders paying a warm personal tribute to the director.

Naman Ramachandran Paramount’s “Bob Marley: One Love” debuted atop the U.K. and Ireland box office with £6.9 million ($8.7 million), according to numbers from Comscore. Universal’s animation “Migration” dropped a spot to second place with £2.7 million in its third weekend and now has a total of £13.5 million.

The Berlin Film Festival officially kicked off this evening with an eventful opening ceremony at the Berlinale Palast theater in the German capital. 

Christopher Vourlias Gordon Main’s apartheid-era documentary “London Recruits” has been tapped as the opening film at the sixth Joburg Film Festival, which takes place Feb. 27 – March 3 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The film sheds light on a pivotal moment in South Africa‘s history, when the struggle against the apartheid government in South Africa developed a new secret weapon.

Beyoncé used the Super Bowl Sunday to announce details of her next studio album. Act II will be released on March 29. Two new songs, "Texas Hold 'Em" and "16 Carriages," are streaming below.

The Taste Of Things, a meditation on turn-of-the-century French cooking — no chicken wings or nachos in sight — is stirring up a nice weekend for IFC Films with $126k and the best per-theater opening of the year so far on Super Bowl weekend.

It’s a weekend of well-reviewed indie openings with Bleecker Street’s Out Of Darkness, The Monk And The Gun (from the directors of Lunana: A Yak In The Classroom) and limited openings for The Taste Of Things, Perfect Days (Best International Feature nominated), Anthony Chen’s Drift, Bas Devos’ Here and Ennio by Giuseppe Tornatore, which premiered in Venice in 2021 and is finally getting a U.S. release.

EXCLUSIVE: German director Wim Wenders has scored his best box office performance in 15 years with Japan-set, comeback feature Perfect Days, according to collated figures released by sales agent The Match Factory.

Japanese filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s latest feature, Evil Does Not Exist, and the period action pic 12.12: The Day, from Korea, lead the nominations at this year’s Asian Film Awards. 

Caroline Brew editor The American Cinematheque has programmed a retrospective to celebrate the work of three-time Oscar nominee Wim Wenders ahead of the Feb. 7 nationwide release of his latest film “Perfect Days,” Neon announced. The retrospective screenings and in-person Q&As will begin on Jan.

a veteran Hollywood publicist, who championed independent films for decades and also dabbled in acting, has died. He was 79.Cottrell died on New Year’s Day at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills in Los Angeles, California.His sister Suzy Cottrell confirmed his death and posted a tribute to her late brother on Facebook.“My adorable, fun, critical, foodie, particular, brilliant, loving brother passed on to the next life early on New Year’s Day,” she wrote.

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor Mickey Cottrell, a veteran publicist for independent films known as a champion of filmmakers and actors, died Monday at the Motion Picture Hospital in Woodland Hills, his sister Suzy Cottrell confirmed. He was 79.

range of nonfiction film — the subjects, the styles, the voices — is extraordinary in its reach. Does that mean that we’re in a renaissance era? You might say that. But you could also say that when it comes to this form of filmmaking, the art of reality knows no season.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released the shortlists for the 2024 Oscars this morning and there were few surprises in the usually competitive International Film category. Despite some top-tier candidates, the overall field was generally considered weaker than usual.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic Wim Wenders describes himself as “a man of habits,” which helps to explain the respect he shows the routine-driven lead character of his latest narrative feature, “Perfect Days.” The gentle drama, which takes place in Japan (it was selected as the country’s official Oscar submission this year), focuses on a Tokyo craftsman who spends his days cleaning the city’s public toilets. Routine is central to Wenders’ life as well, and it’s thanks to one of Wenders’ rituals that he found the subject for a second feature film he premiered at Cannes last May: “Anselm,” a 3D portrait of the controversial German artist Anselm Kiefer more than 30 years in the making. Wenders first met Kiefer back in 1991, as the unconventional sculptor was preparing his biggest exhibition to date at the National Gallery in Berlin.

The Oscar-contending documentary Anselm marks an encounter between two of the world’s great artists – one renowned for cinema, the other for painting, installations, and sculpture.

Cinema professionals from across Europe are gathering in Berlin this weekend for the ceremony of the 36th European Film Awards on Saturday evening.

Yorgos Lanthimos’ Venice Golden Lion Winner Poor Things is here with Searchlight Pictures sewing up nine theaters in four major markets for leg one of the Emma Stone-starring surreal-period-comedy-horror.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Co-organized by the Cannes Film Festival and Market and Argentina’s INCAA film-TV agency, late November’s Ventana Sur market looks set to have at least one star: Cannes head Thierry Fremaux himself. Presenting the Cannes Film Week, a extraordinary showcase of 2023 winners led this year by Justine Triet’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner “Anatomy of a Fall” and bowing on Nov.

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor The Cinema Eye Honors for achievement in nonfiction and documentary films and series has announced nominees for the 17th awards ceremony. “Kokomo City” from D. Smith led the nominees with six.

Wim Wenders returned to the Croisette at the Cannes Film Festival in a big way this year with “Perfect Days.” The German director’s first film since 2017’s “Submergence” wowed audiences at the festival, with the movie nabbing the Prize Of The Ecumenical Jury and the Best Actor Award for star Kōji Yakusho. Now, after further screenings at Telluride, TIFF, London, and NYFF this Fall, it’s time for US audiences to see “Perfect Days” for themselves.

Japan has dominated this year’s Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA), with German filmmaker Wim Wenders’ latest Tokyo-set pic and Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car follow-up taking the top prizes. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Two films from Japan, Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days” and Hamaguchi Ryusuke’s “Evil Does Not Exist,” won the top prizes at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards on Friday. Multiple other honors went to films from Korea and Kazakhstan. The 16th edition of the APSA Awards was held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia and recognized films from eight countries. “Perfect Days,” a gentle comedy drama about a toilet cleaner in Tokyo finding happiness in the everyday, premiered in Cannes and more recently was selected as Japan’s Oscar contender and as the opening title of the Tokyo International Film Festival.

Ed Meza @edmezavar Berlin-based DCM Film Distribution has acquired Kristoffer Borgli’s surrealist comedy “Dream Scenario,” starring Nicolas Cage. In the A24 satire, which premiered in Toronto before opening this year’s Zurich Film Festival, Cage plays a college professor whose life is turned upside down when millions of strangers suddenly start seeing him in their dreams. “We love ‘Dream Scenario,’” says Carl Rickmers, DCM’s newly appointed director of film acquisitions and sales.

Tokyo’s International Film Festival returned this evening for its first completely unrestricted, post-COVID-19 edition with a well-attended screening of Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days. 

Thierry Frémaux is best known internationally as the long-time head of France’s Cannes Film Festival, which is organized out of its offices in Paris’s trendy Marais neighborhood.

Wim Wenders introduced the cast and crew of “Perfect Days” at an outdoor stage, giving the opening ceremony of the 36th Tokyo International Film Festival a moment of European cool. Inside the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater, Wenders was brought on stage twice more. “I had a dream that with ‘Perfect Days,’ I’d make a film that would play at the Cannes Film Festival. I dreamed that it would win the best acting prize.