The great auteur filmmaker and ZFF award winner has designed and signed a unique ZFF poster with a golden twenty to mark the 20th anniversary of the Zurich Film Festival (ZFF). The ZFF posters by Wim Wenders will be produced in an edition of 50 and are now available in the NZZ Shop.
Wim Wenders is an icon of auteur cinema and throughout his career has received numerous awards for masterpieces such as PARIS TEXAS, DER HIMMEL ÜBER BERLIN, BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB and PERFECT DAYS, leaving a lasting mark on the film world. At the Zurich Film Festival 2018, the renowned director, writer, producer and photographer was honored for his outstanding work with the A Tribute to… Award, our highest recognition for a director, for his outstanding work.
The ZFF regularly screens his films. Most recently he was represented at the ZFF in 2023 with the two films PERFECT DAYS and ANSELM which DCM successfully brought to theaters. Wim Wenders has developed a special relationship to the city of Zurich over the years – among other reasons because he lived in Zurich in 1980 as part of a film project that was never realized. It is a great honor for the Zurich Film Festival to publish an exclusive poster featuring him on its 20th birthday. Christian Jungen, Artistic Director of the ZFF is delighted: ‘Wim is one of my favorite directors, who had an enormous influence on my cinephile path. Him and the ZFF have a long-standing relationship; our festival has shown many of his works in recent years, awarded him prizes and honored him with a retrospective. What our festival and Wim have in common is a passion for good American auteur cinema and a love of cinema as a place of collective artistic experience. This is exactly what Wim expresses with his work, and that honors and pleases us enormously’.
Wim Wenders is also excited about the collaboration on the anniversary poster with the ZFF and gives a brief insight into the creative process and his relationship with Zurich: ‘Zurich itself has meant a lot to me for a long time now, especially because of all the good friends I have there or (unfortunately) had. I have visited the ZFF a couple of times and made only the best memories of good conversations. Such an anniversary—20 years—is indeed something special, and to be able to design a poster for it is an honor. I have not had the chance to do that many times in my life. In my collection of photos, I searched for pictures of cinemas. There were many, some drive-in movie theaters. And then I found contact sheets with this white-fronted drive-in in Texas. In combination with the vintage car in front of it, the whole thing had a truly special atmosphere. You could do a lot with that… It was an honor – not to mention a lot of fun – to be able to design the poster for the ZFF’s 20th birthday.
The ZFF-Wim Wenders Poster in Two Formats
The exclusive poster in A2 format will be published in a limited edition of 50 copies. Each copy is personally signed and numbered by Wim Wenders and bears a golden twenty – a festive tribute to the festival’s anniversary. These special collector’s items are available in the NZZ Shop for CHF 5,000 per poster. In addition, an edition of 300 without the original signature posters will be printed. These posters will be available at a price of CHF 55. They can be ordered in the ZFF Online Shop.
From Painting to Being an Acclaimed Director
After studying medicine, philosophy and painting, Wim Wenders, born in 1945, turned to film in 1967, which he defined as a ‘continuation of painting by other means’. The versatile artist, who also enjoys an excellent reputation as a photographer, was awarded the Critics’ Prize in Venice for his debut film DIE ANGST DES TORMANNS BEIM ELFMETER (1972). He made his international breakthrough in 1977 with the feature film DER AMERIKANISCHE FREUND. Since then, Wenders has worked in Europe, the USA, Latin America and Asia. Thoughtfulness and curiosity characterize his constant questioning of the images of this world.
Wim Wenders’ films have won numerous awards worldwide. PARIS, TEXAS (1984) received the Palme d’Or and the British Academy Film Award, and for DER HIMMEL ÜBER BERLIN (1987) Wenders was awarded the Director’s Prize in Cannes. His documentaries BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB (1999), PINA (2011) and DAS SALZ DER ERDE (2014) were international successes and were all nominated for an Oscar.