Wings of Desire is a 1987 romantic fantasy film written by Wim Wenders, Peter Handke and Richard Reitinger, and directed by Wenders. The film is about invisible, immortal angels who populate Berlin and listen to the thoughts of its human inhabitants, comforting the distressed. Even though the city is densely populated, many of the people are isolated or estranged from their loved ones. One of the angels, played by Bruno Ganz, falls in love with a beautiful, lonely trapeze artist, played by Solveig Dommartin. The angel chooses to become mortal so that he can experience human sensory pleasures, ranging from enjoying food to touching a loved one, and so that he can discover human love with the trapeze artist.
Billy Wilder was an Austrian-born filmmaker and screenwriter. His career in Hollywood spanned five decades, and he is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Classic Hollywood cinema. He received seven Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or and two Golden Globe Awards.
Max Reinhardt was an Austrian-born theatre and film director, intendant, and theatrical producer. With his radically innovative and avante garde stage productions, Reinhardt is regarded as one of the most prominent stage directors of the early 20th century.
Emil Jannings was a Swiss-born German actor who was popular in Hollywood in the 1920s. He was the first recipient of the Academy Award for Best Actor for his roles in The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh. As of 2024, Jannings is the only German ever to have won the category.
Luise Rainer was a German-American-British film actress. She was the first thespian to win multiple Academy Awards, and the first to win back-to-back; at the time of her death, thirteen days shy of her 105th birthday, she was the longest-lived Oscar recipient, a superlative that has not been exceeded, as of 2024.
Bruno Ganz was a Swiss actor whose career in German stage, television and film productions spanned nearly 60 years. He was known for his collaborations with the directors Werner Herzog, Éric Rohmer, Francis Ford Coppola, and Wim Wenders, earning widespread recognition with his roles as Jonathan Zimmerman in The American Friend (1977), Jonathan Harker in Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) and Damiel the Angel in Wings of Desire (1987).
Senta Verhoeven is an Austrian-German actress. She received many award nominations for her acting in theatre, film and television; her awards include three Bambi Awards, two Romys, an Adolf Grimme Award, both a Deutscher and a Bayerischer Fernsehpreis, and a Goldene Kamera.
Katharina Thalbach is a German actress and stage director. She played theatre at the Berliner Ensemble and at the Volksbühne Berlin, and was actress in the film The Tin Drum. She worked as a theatre and opera director.
Liselotte Pulver, sometimes credited as Lilo Pulver, is a Swiss actress. Pulver was one of the biggest stars of German cinema in the 1950s and 1960s, where she often was cast as a tomboy. She is well known for her hearty and joyful laughter. Her films outside of German cinema include A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958), One, Two, Three (1961) and The Nun (1966).
Christoph Waltz is an Austrian and German actor. He is known for playing villainous and supporting roles in English-language films since 2009. He has been primarily active in the United States. His accolades include two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Sandra Hüller is a German actress. She has appeared in German, Austrian, American, British, and French films. She has received various accolades, including two European Film Awards, a César Award and three German Film Awards, along with nominations for an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and a Golden Globe Award. She gained international recognition in 2023 for her starring roles in Jonathan Glazer's Holocaust drama, The Zone of Interest, and Justine Triet's legal drama, Anatomy of a Fall. Her performances in them earned her two BAFTA Film Award nominations, while the latter won her a European Film Award and a César Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award.
Uwe Kröger is a musical star in the German-speaking countries of the world. Besides starring on stage, Kröger has taken part in galas and concerts, as well as making television and film appearances. He has released cast recordings and solo CDs.
Helen Schneider is an American singer and actress working mainly in Germany.
David Kross is a German actor. He began his career at a young age with a small role in the 2002 film Hilfe, ich bin ein Junge and worked sporadically, mainly focusing on his school work. In 2008, he won the starring role of Michael Berg in the film The Reader. For his part, he was nominated for various awards and went on to win the Sierra Award at the Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards for Youth in Film.
The Berlin International Film Festival, usually called the Berlinale, is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europe's "Big Three" film festivals alongside the Venice Film Festival held in Italy and the Cannes Film Festival held in France. Furthermore, it is one of the "Big Five", the most prestigious film festivals in the world. The festival regularly draws tens of thousands of visitors each year.
Graft is a design studio conceived as a ‘label’ for architecture, urban planning, exhibition design, music and the “pursuit of happiness”. Graft was founded in 1998 in Los Angeles, California by Lars Krückeberg, Wolfram Putz and Thomas Willemeit, and headed by partner Alejandra Lillo from 2007 until early 2011. A second Graft office was opened 2001 in Berlin, followed by a third office in Beijing in 2004, which is headed by founding partner Gregor Hoheisel.
The Africa Movie Academy Awards, popularly known as AMAA and The AMA Awards, are presented annually to recognize excellence among professionals working in, or non-African professionals who have contributed to, the African film industry. It was founded by Peace Anyiam-Osigwe and is run through the Africa Film Academy. The awards are aimed at honouring and promoting excellence in the African movie industry as well as uniting the African continent through arts and culture. The award presentation is attended by numerous media representatives, celebrities, politicians, journalists, actresses and actors from all across the world. The AMA Awards are widely considered to be Africa's most important film event and the most prestigious film award in Africa. A variety of international observers have fondly called the African Movie Academy Awards the "African Oscars".
Peter Przygodda was a German filmmaker, best known for editing Wim Wenders' films. Przygodda died of cancer, aged 69, in 2011.
Dominik Graf is a German film director. He studied film direction at University of Television and Film Munich, from where he graduated in 1975. While he has directed several theatrically released feature films since the 1980s, he more often finds work in television, focussing primarily on the genres police drama, thriller and crime mystery, although he has also made comedies, melodramas, documentaries and essay films. He is an active participant in public discourse about the values of genre film in Germany, through numerous articles, and interviews, some of which have been collected into a book.
