The European Film Academy is an initiative of a group of European filmmakers who came together in Berlin on the occasion of the first presentation of the European Film Awards in November 1988.

European Film Academy[link]

In 1988, the Academy—under the name of European Cinema Society—was officially founded by its first President, the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, as well as 40 filmmakers from all over Europe in order to promote European film culture worldwide and to protect and to support the interests of the European film industry.^[1] Wim Wenders was elected Chairman^[1]. Two years later, the European Cinema Society was renamed European Film Academy and was registered as a non-profit association.

In 1996, Wim Wenders took over the presidency from Ingmar Bergman,^[2] and the British producer Nik Powell was elected new Chairman^[3]. The decisions about political targets and contents are made by the 15 Board members of the Academy which has its seat in Berlin^[4].

Due to a decision of the General Assembly, the number of members - originally limited to 99 - has been continuously increasing and has now reached 2,300 (as of October 2010). The Academy is thus working in close contact with the European film industry.

The European Film Academy (EFA) is located in Berlin, Germany.

European Film Academy e.V., Kurfürstendamm 225, 10719 Berlin, Germany, Tel: +49-30-8871670

Staff and Structure[link]

The President Wim Wenders The Board Chairman Yves Marmion Deputy Chairmen Nik Powell, Volker Schlöndorff^[5]

Board Members Adriana Chiesa di Palma, Bruno Chatelin, Daniela Ciancio, Helena Danielsson, Mike Downey, Stephan Hutter, László Kantór, Cedomir Kolar, Goran Paskaljevic, Antonio Perez Perez, Goran Paskaljevic, Antonio Saura, Els Vandevorst, Michael Weber, Krzysztof Zanussi^[6]

Honorary Members of the Board: Sir Ben Kingsley, Dušan Makavejev, Jeanne Moreau^[7]

The Secretariat Marion Döring, Director / Gisela Corsten, Head of Finances / Maria von Hörsten, Co-ordination awarding procedures European Film Awards / Pascal Edelmann, Press/PR / Nikola Joetze, Junior Producer / Rainer Pyls, Accounting / Administration EFA Members / Bettina Schwarz, Co-ordination Prix UIP/Training projects / Viviane Gajewski, Assistance^[8]

Academy members per country[link]

listed are all countries with more than 20 EFA members

The Annual EFA Programme[link]

Throughout the year, the European Film Academy (EFA) initiates and participates in a series of activities dealing with film politics as well as economic, artistic, and training aspects. The programme includes conferences, seminars and workshops, and a common goal is to build a bridge between creativity and the industry. Some of EFA's events have already become an institution for encounters within the European film community:

The Prix UIP is an initiative by UIP and the European Film Academy in co-operation with fourteen festivals throughout Europe. The winning short film receives a financial donation of € 2,000 and an automatic nomination in the short film category of the European Film Awards.

A Sunday in the Country is a special weekend encounter between appr. ten young European filmmakers and some established EFA members. The private atmosphere of these gatherings guarantees an exchange of ideas and experience which goes far beyond the results of usual workshops.

Conferences and Seminars Every year, a series of conferences initiated and/or supported by the European Film Academy enhance a European debate on film, create platforms for a vivid exchange among film professionals and ensure that the discussion of what European film is, how it is changing and where it is going never expires.

Master Classes offer valuable training opportunities for young talent, combining theoretical and practical training. The high-profile list of former masters includes renowned film professionals such as Jean-Jacques Annaud, Jan De Bont, Henning Carlsen, André Delvaux, Bernd Eichinger, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Jiri Menzel, Tilda Swinton, István Szabó, Marc Weigert, Mike Newell, Tsui Hark, Allan Starski and Anthony Dod Mantle.

European Film Awards[link]

The annual European Film Awards ceremony (formerly known as FELIX) is the most visible activity of the European Film Academy. With the awards the Academy pursues the following aims: attracting the interest of the audience in European cinema, promoting its cultural and artistic qualities, and regaining the public’s confidence in its entertainment value. To put these ideas into practice, the People’s Choice Awards were added as a new category in 1997. They are accompanied by big advertising campaigns in European film magazines. In addition, screenings of the nominated films were in the past years organised for the public in several European cities (Berlin, Edinburgh, London, Stockholm, Strasbourg, Warsaw).

In 2000, the Academy agreed a co-operation contract with United International Pictures (UIP) and ten festivals in Europe (Gent/Belgium, Valladolid/Spain, Edinburgh/UK, Angers/France, Berlin/Germany, Tampere/Finland, Vila do Conde/Portugal, Grimstad/Norway, Sarajevo/Bosnia and Herzegovina, Venice/Italy). According to this agreement, UIP and EFA jointly award a prize for a short film at each of these festivals; the recipient is automatically nominated for the European Film Awards in the category European Short Film – Prix UIP.

In 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001, the awards ceremony was broadcast on TV in almost every European country as well as in the US, Latin America and New Zealand.

The members of the European Film Academy actively participate in the selection, nomination and awarding procedure.

The European Film Awards are the first in the annual international awards calendar. Most of the nominees and winners of the European Film Awards are found in the following months among the nominees and winners of the Golden Globes or the Oscars. In the past years, European producers and distributors repeatedly stressed that a nomination or receipt of the European Film Award had a positive impact on the destiny of their films with regard to the Golden Globe or the Oscar.

European-American film talk[link]

Every year in the autumn, EFA and Freundeskreis der Villa Aurora e.V. organise a meeting in the former villa of German-Jewish writer Lion Feuchtwanger in Los Angeles. At the round table, European and American filmmakers are invited during one day to explore concrete ways for transatlantic co-operation.

European film awards sidebar events[link]

Every year, the European Film Academy organises a sidebar programme on the occasion of the European Film Awards week-end with panel discussions and conferences. Thus, innovative production methods for the new millennium were discussed at the conference which took place in Berlin in 1999, whereas in 2000, nine European filmmakers of international reputation (among them, Wim Wenders, Liv Ullmann, Tom Tykwer, Dominik Moll, Pavel Longouine, Maria de Medeiros) as well as the EU commissioner Viviane Reding made very personal and visionary speeches on the artistic, cultural, and social role of cinema in front of 800 guests at Theâtre de l’Odéon in Paris, where the conference E LA NAVE VA - For a New Energy in European Cinema was held.

The status quo[link]

The European Film Academy is mainly funded by the Stiftung Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin (German National Lottery), the German State Minister for Culture and the Media, and Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH.

The European Film Awards are taking place every second year in Berlin, where the Academy is based, while they are presented every other year in another European film capital.

The presentation of the European Film Awards are financed independently from the Academy. Since 1997, EFA has contracted DDA Productions Ltd., London, as exclusive producers of the awards ceremony and their international broadcast on TV.

For five years now, the European Film Awards have been supported by patrons from the international film industry with an annual amount of $10,000 each. Their commitment proves the importance that the international film industry attaches to the European Film Awards. In addition, the Academy has established co-operations with a number of sponsors from the private sector who are supporting the European Film Awards on a long-term basis: courier service TNT (express logistics mail)(since 1997), DaimlerChrysler, UIP United International Pictures and DAS WERK.

See also[link]

	Film portal
	European Union portal

• Cinema of the world
• History of cinema
• World cinema
• Culture of Europe

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b} History of European Film Academy. 13 Feb. 2008
2. ^ Rossberg, O., and C. Rogers. "Biography." Wim Wenders. 1 2001. Wim Wenders Productions. 14 Feb. 2008 [1].
3. ^ "History." European Film Academy. 1 European Film Academy. 14 Jan. 2008 <http://www.europeanfilmacademy.org/htm/History.html>.
4. ^ "Home." European Film Academy. 1 European Film Academy. 14 Feb. 2008 <http://www.europeanfilmacademy.org/htm/EFAcademy.html>.
5. ^ "Home." European Film Academy. 1 European Film Academy. 20 Dec. 2011 <http://www.europeanfilmacademy.org/htm/EFAcademy.html>.
6. ^ "Home." European Film Academy. 1 European Film Academy. 20 Dec 2011 <http://www.europeanfilmacademy.org/htm/EFAcademy.html>.
7. ^ "Home." European Film Academy. 1 European Film Academy. 14 Feb. 2008 <http://www.europeanfilmacademy.org/htm/EFAcademy.html>.
8. ^ "Home." European Film Academy. 1 European Film Academy. 14 Feb. 2008 <http://www.europeanfilmacademy.org/htm/EFAcademy.html>.

External links[link]

• Official website
• Wim Wenders

Ken Loach
Born	Kenneth Loach (1936-06-17) 17 June 1936 (age 76) Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England, UK
Alma mater	St Peter's College, Oxford
Years active	1962–present

Kenneth "Ken" Loach (born 17 June 1936) is a Palme D'Or winning English film and television director.

He is known for his naturalistic, social realist directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness (Cathy Come Home) and labour rights (Riff-Raff).

Life and career[link]

Loach was born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, the son of Vivien (née Hamlin) and John Loach.^[1] He attended King Edward VI Grammar School and following two years in the Royal Air Force read law at St Peter's College, Oxford. There he performed in the now well-established comedy group, the Oxford Revue. He initially worked as an actor in repertory theatre, but in the early 1960s moved into television direction and was credited in this role on early episodes of Z-Cars in 1964.

In 1966, Loach made the influential docudrama Cathy Come Home portraying working class people affected by homelessness and unemployment, and presenting a powerful and influential critique of the workings of the Social Services. Soon afterwards with Poor Cow (1967) he started directing films for the cinema, and in 1969 made Kes, the story of a troubled boy and his kestrel, based on the novel A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines. The British Film Institute named it No 7 in its list of best British films of the twentieth century, published in 1999.^[2]

During the 1970s and '80s, Loach's films were less successful, often suffering from poor distribution, lack of interest and political censorship. His film The Save the Children Fund Film (1971) was commissioned by the charity, who subsequently disliked it so much they attempted to have the negative destroyed. In fact, it was only screened publicly for the first time on 1 September 2011, at the BFI Southbank.^[3]

In 1982, Loach and Central Independent Television were commissioned by Channel 4 to make Questions of Leadership, a documentary series on the response of the British trade union movement to the challenge posed by the policies of the Thatcher government, which also gave members an opportunity to call their own leaders to account. The programmes were not broadcast by Channel 4, a decision Loach claimed was politically motivated. In 2004, for the first time, the real reason for this censorship was revealed, in Anthony Hayward's book Which Side Are You On? Ken Loach and His Films.^[4] It emerged that the media tycoon Robert Maxwell had put pressure on Central's board, of which he had become a director, to withdraw Questions of Leadership at the time he was buying the Daily Mirror newspaper and needed the co-operation of union leaders, especially Frank Chapple of the electricians.

Which Side Are You On? (1985), about the songs and poems of the UK miners' strike, was commissioned by ITV's The South Bank Show, but also banned. The film was eventually transmitted on Channel 4, but only after it won a major prize at the Berlin International Film Festival. Crucially, it was only shown towards the end of the miners' strike and not in the middle of the strike when it was originally scheduled.

The late 1980s and 1990s saw the production of a series of critically acclaimed and popular films such as Hidden Agenda, one of the rare films dealing with the political troubles in Northern Ireland, Carla's Song set partially in Nicaragua, and Land and Freedom examining the Republican resistance in the Spanish Civil War. "Land and Freedom" contains a quintessentially Loach sequence of a 20 minute political discussion amongst villagers trying to decide whether or not a village's smallholdings should be collectivized. During this period he was also awarded prizes at the Cannes Film Festival on three occasions. He directed the Courtroom Drama reconstructions in the docu-film McLibel, concerning the longest libel trial in English history, which became a promotional disaster for the fast food chain. Interspersed with overtly political films were smaller dramas such as Raining Stones a working class drama concerning an unemployed man's efforts to buy a communion dress for his young daughter.

On 28 May 2006, Loach won the Palme d'Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival for his film The Wind That Shakes the Barley,^[5] a film about the Irish War of Independence and the subsequent Irish Civil War during the 1920s. In characteristic fashion this sweeping political-historical drama was followed by It's a Free World a story of one woman's attempt to establish an illegal placement service for migrant workers in London. Throughout the 2000s Loach continued to intersperse wider political dramas such as Bread and Roses (which focused on the Los Angeles janitors strike) and Route Irish, set in the Iraq occupation, with smaller examinations of personal relationships. Ae Fond Kiss explored an inter-racial love affair, Sweet Sixteen a teenager's relationship with his mother, and My Name is Joe an alcoholic's struggle to stay sober. His most commercially successful recent film is 2009's Looking for Eric, featuring a depressed postman's conversations with the ex-Manchester United football star, Eric Cantona (played by Cantona himself). A measure of Loach's difficulties gaining broad release for his work is the fact that this film ended up making only £12,000 profit.^[6] The film received critical acclaim and won the Magritte Award for Best Co-Production.

In 2011 he released Route Irish, an examination of private contractors working in the Iraqi occupation. A thematic consistency throughout his films, whether they examine broad political situations, or smaller intimate dramas, is his focus on personal relationships. The sweeping political dramas (Land and Freedom, Bread and Roses, The Wind that Shakes the Barley) examine wider political forces in the context of relationships between family members (Bread and Roses, The Wind that Shakes the Barley, Carla's Song), comrades in struggle (Land and Freedom) or close friends (Route Irish). In a 2011 interview for the Financial Times, Loach explains how "The politics are embedded into the characters and the narrative, which is a more sophisticated way of doing it".^[7]

Loach lives with his wife, Lesley, in Bath, where he is a supporter of and shareholder in Bath City F.C. A short film concerning Bath FC is part of the DVD issue of "Looking for Eric". His son Jim Loach has also become a television and film director.

The Angel's Share centres around a young Scottish troublemaker who is given one final opportunity to stay out of jail. Newcomer Paul Brannigan, 24, from Glasgow, plays the lead role.^[8] The film competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival^[9][10] where Loach won the Jury Prize.^[11]

Film style[link]

Ken Loach at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.

Loach's film work is characterised by a particular view of realism; he strives in every area of filmmaking to emphasise genuine interplay between actors, to the point where some scenes in his films appear unscripted. All scenes are carefully scripted, around which some improvisation can occur. The final script and the final film are actually very close. Loach values having a strong, creative partnership with scriptwriters, most recently with Paul Laverty, who has written nine feature films for Loach (including The Wind That Shakes The Barley and Sweet Sixteen), and previously with Jim Allen (Land & Freedom) and Barry Hines (Kes).

In May 2010, Loach told Tom Lamont in an interview about the three films that have influenced him most: Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves (1948), Milos Forman's Loves of a Blonde (1965) and Gillo Pontecorvo's Battle of Algiers (1966). De Sica's film had a particularly profound effect on Loach. He noted "It made me realise that cinema could be about ordinary people and their dilemmas. It wasn't a film about stars, or riches or absurd adventures."^[12]

Rather than employing method actors, he prefers unknown talent who have had some of the life experience of the characters they portray. Loach's film work has been described as naturalistic; he emphasises the genuine interplay between actors, and foregoes over-dependence on special effects. He succeeds in creating a spontaneous, realistic atmosphere in scenes and many actors, from Dustin Hoffman and Robert Duvall to Robert Carlyle (Carla's Song and Riff-Raff) and Peter Mullan (My Name Is Joe) have praised the performances he coaxes from actors and how he treats them.

In Bread and Roses, a film about immigrant cleaners in LA, many of the extras were Latino immigrant cleaners. Some were also trade union and grassroots activists. Some knew from their own experience the dangers of crossing the border into the US. Adrien Brody, the main actor, spent time with activists to understand his role better. Pilar Padilla, a Mexican actress and protagonist of the film, had to learn English in a crash course to play the part.

Loach makes great efforts to help the actors express themselves naturally and honestly. He believes that shooting in order, from first scene to last, helps the actors to find a response to their circumstances. Many actors in his films are often not given the full script at the beginning of a shoot, but rather they experience the story just as a fictional character might do. He will often give actors their scenes a couple of days in advance so they can learn their lines, but they still won't know what comes after that. If a scene involves shock or surprise for a character, the actor might not know what is about to happen. In Kes the boy actor, discovering the dead bird at the end, believed Loach had killed the bird, which he had become fond of during the filming (the crew used a dead bird found elsewhere). In the scene where Mr Gryce is searching the schoolboys, the small first year holding everybody else's cigarettes was under the impression that he was to give the headmaster a note and leave the office. Subsequently, when he is searched and found to be "a right little cigarette factory", he is caned alongside the other boys; hence, his look of shock and tears of pain are real. In Raining Stones one of the actresses visited at her house by a loan shark had no idea that he was going to force her to take off her wedding ring and give it to him as part payment. In Carla's Song, the bus driver, played by Robert Carlyle, knew nothing of Carla's attempted suicide until he discovered her in the bath. In Looking For Eric, the main actor Steve Evets discovered that football icon Eric Cantona was in the film only when he turned around to face him in a scene, with the camera rolling.

Loach opposes censorship in cinema and was outraged at the "18" certificate given to Sweet Sixteen. Loach said,

Political activities[link]

Throughout his career Loach's films have been shelved for political reasons. In a 2011 interview with the Guardian newspaper he said "It makes you angry, not on your own behalf, but on behalf of the people whose voices weren't allowed to be heard. When you had trade unions, ordinary people, rank and file, never been on television, never been interviewed, and they're not allowed to be heard, that's scandalous. And you see it over and over again. I mean, we heard very little from the kids in the riots. You hear some people being inarticulate in a hood, but very few people were actually allowed to speak".^[13] In the same interview his focus on working people's lives is explained thus: "I think the underlying factors regarding the riots are plain for anyone with eyes to see … It seems to me any economic structure that could give young people a future has been destroyed. Traditionally young people would be drawn into the world of work, and into groups of adults who would send the boys for a lefthanded screwdriver, or a pot of elbow grease, and so they'd be sent up in that way, but they would also learn about responsibilities, and learn a trade, and be defined by their skills. Well, they destroyed that. Thatcher destroyed that. She consciously destroyed the workforces in places like the railways, for example, and the mines, and the steelworks … so that transition from adolescence to adulthood was destroyed, consciously, and knowingly." He argues that working people's struggles are inherently dramatic: "They live life very vividly, and the stakes are very high if you don't have a lot of money to cushion your life. Also, because they're the front line of what we came to call the class war. Either through being workers without work, or through being exploited where they were working. And I guess for a political reason, because we felt, and I still think, that if there is to be change, it will come from below. It won't come from people who have a lot to lose, it will come from people who will have everything to gain."^[14] This explains how Loach regards politics and drama as intertwined, rather than existing in separate spheres.

A member of the Labour Party from the early 1960s, Loach left in the mid-1990s.^[15] In November 2004, he was elected to the national council of the Respect Coalition^[15] He stood for election to the European Parliament on a Respect mandate. He supports the Socialist Resistance organisation. Also, he supports the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of the State of Israel, backed by many intellectuals in Palestinian civil society, including writers, filmmakers, students, trade unions and human rights groups. PACBI is in turn part of a wider global international movement: Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), that opposes actions by the Israeli State.^[16]

In 2007, Loach was one of more than 100 artists and writers who signed an open letter initiated by Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism and the South West Asian, North African Bay Area Queers (SWANABAQ) and calling on the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival "to honour calls for an international boycott of Israeli political and cultural institutions, by discontinuing Israeli consulate sponsorship of the LGBT film festival and not co-sponsoring events with the Israeli consulate."^[17][18] Loach also joined "54 international figures in the literary and cultural fields" in signing a letter that stated, in part, "celebrating 'Israel at 60' is tantamount to dancing on Palestinian graves to the haunting tune of lingering dispossession and multi-faceted injustice". The letter was published in the International Herald Tribune on 8 May 2008."^[19]

Responding to a report, which he described as "a red herring", on the growth of antisemitism since the beginning of the Gaza War, he has said: "If there has been a rise I am not surprised. In fact, it is perfectly understandable because Israel feeds feelings of anti-Semitism." He added "no-one can condone violence".^[20]

In May 2009, organisers of the Edinburgh International Film Festival returned a £300 grant from the Israeli Embassy after speaking with Ken Loach. The director was supporting a boycott of the festival called for by the PACBI campaign. In response, former Channel 4 chief executive Sir Jeremy Isaacs describing Loach's intervention as an act of censorship, he said: "They must not allow someone who has no real position, no rock to stand on, to interfere with their programming." Later, a spokesman for the EIFF said that although it had returned £300 to the Israeli Embassy, the festival itself would fund Israeli filmmaker Tali Shalom-Ezer's travel to Edinburgh out of its own budget.^[21][22][23] In an open letter to Ms Shalom Ezer, Ken Loach wrote "From the beginning, Israel and its supporters have attacked their critics as anti-semites or racists. It is a tactic to undermine rational debate. To be crystal clear: as a film maker you will receive a warm welcome in Edinburgh. You are not censored or rejected. The opposition was to the Festival’s taking money from the Israeli state".^[24] To his critics, he added later: "The boycott, as anyone who takes the trouble to investigate knows, is aimed at the Israeli state."^[25] Loach said he had a "respectful and reasoned" conversation with event organisers, saying they should not be accepting funds from Israel.^[25]

In June 2009, Loach, Paul Laverty (writer) and Rebecca O'Brien (producer) pulled their film Looking For Eric from the Melbourne International Film Festival, where the Israeli Embassy is a sponsor, after the festival declined the withdraw their sponsorship.^[26] The festival's chief executive, Richard Moore, compared Loach's tactics to blackmail, stating that "we will not participate in a boycott against the State of Israel, just as we would not contemplate boycotting films from China or other nations involved in difficult long-standing historical disputes.” Australian lawmaker Michael Danby also criticised Loach’s tactics stating that “Israelis and Australians have always had a lot in common, including contempt for the irritating British penchant for claiming cultural superiority. Melbourne is a very different place to Londonistan.”^[27]

Loach, Laverty and O'Brien subsequently wrote that: "We feel duty bound to take advice from those living at the sharp end inside the occupied territories. We would also encourage other filmmakers and actors invited to festivals to check for Israeli state backing before attending, and if so, to respect the boycott. Israeli filmmakers are not the target. State involvement is. In the grand scale of things it is a tiny contribution to a growing movement, but the example of South Africa should give us heart".^[28]

Loach has also expressed strong support for Chechen independence from Russia.^[29]

Loach is a Patron of several charities, including Doorway, a homeless charity in Nuneaton,^[30] and Developing Health and Independence (DHI) in Bath.^[31]

Together with John Pilger and Jemima Khan, Ken Loach was among the six people in court willing to offer surety for Julian Assange when he was arrested in London on 7 December 2010.^[32] In a recent interview with ShortList magazine he said "It’s clear that he’s being set up. Clearly the Yanks want to get him back and either imprison him for a long time, or worse. We need a bit of solidarity with someone who has just told us things that we were entitled to know."

Loach is supporting the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition in the London Assembly election, 2012^[33] He wrote a letter to The Observer in 2012 condemning the Globe theatre for allowing an Israeli theatre company to perform there.^[34]

Honours[link]

Loach turned down an OBE in 1977. In a Radio Times interview, published in March 2001, he said:

Loach has been awarded honorary doctorates by the University of Bath, the University of Birmingham, Staffordshire University, and Keele University.^[36] Oxford University awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree in June 2005. He is also an honorary fellow of his alma mater, St Peter's College, Oxford.^[37] In May 2006, he was awarded the BAFTA Fellowship at the BAFTA TV Awards.

He received the 2003 Praemium Imperiale (lit. "World Culture Prize in Memory of His Imperial Highness Prince Takamatsu") in the category Film/Theatre.

Filmography[link]

Television[link]

• Catherine ("Teletale", 1964)
• Z-Cars (series, 1964)
• Diary of a Young Man (1964)
• Tap on the Shoulder (Play for Today, 1965)
• Wear a Very Big Hat (Play for Today, 1965)
• Three Clear Sundays (Play for Today, 1965)
• Up the Junction (Play for Today, 1965)
• The End of Arthur's Marriage (Play for Today, 1965)
• The Coming Out Party (Play for Today, 1965)
• Cathy Come Home (Play for Today, 1966)
• In Two Minds (Play for Today, 1967)
• The Golden Vision (Play for Today, 1968)
• The Big Flame (Play for Today, 1969)
• The Rank and the File (Play for Today, 1971)
• After a Lifetime ("Sunday Night Theatre", 1971)
• A Misfortune ("Full House", 1973)
• Days of Hope (mini-series, 1975)
• The Price of Coal (1977)
• The Gamekeeper (1980)
• Auditions (1980)
• A Question of Leadership (1981)
• The Red and the Blue: Impressions of Two Political Conferences - Autumn 1982 (1983)
• Questions of Leadership (1983/4, untransmitted)
• Which Side Are You On? (1985)
• End of the Battle... Not the End of the War ("Diverse Reports", 1985)
• Time to Go ("Split Screen", 1989)
• The View From the Woodpile (1989)
• The Arthur Legend ("Dispatches", 1991)
• The Flickering Flame (1996)
• Another City: A Week in the Life of Bath's Football Club (1998)

Cinema[link]

• Poor Cow (1967)
• Kes (1969) (as Kenneth Loach)
• The Save the Children Fund Film (1971)
• Family Life (1971)
• Black Jack (1979)
• Looks and Smiles (1981) (as Kenneth Loach)
• Fatherland (1986)
• Hidden Agenda (1990). Cannes Special Jury Prize.
• Riff-Raff (1991). European Film Award Best Picture
• Raining Stones (1993). Cannes Special Jury Prize.
• Ladybird Ladybird (1994)
• Land and Freedom (1995). FIPRESCI International Critics Prize; Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the Cannes Film Festival; European Film Award Best Picture
• A Contemporary Case for Common Ownership (1995)
• Carla's Song (1996)
• The Flickering Flame (1997)
• My Name Is Joe (1998)
• Bread and Roses (2000)
• The Navigators (2001)
• Sweet Sixteen (2002)
• 11'09"01 September 11 (segment "United Kingdom") (2002)
• Ae Fond Kiss... (2004)
• Tickets (2005), along with Ermanno Olmi and Abbas Kiarostami
• The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) Palme d'Or, Cannes
• It's a Free World... (2007) Screenplay Osella at 64th Venice Film Festival
• Looking for Eric (2009)
• Route Irish (2010)
• The Angels' Share (2012)

See also[link]

• Kitchen sink realism

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ken Loach

• Ken Loach - Production Company and DVD box set
• Ken Loach at the Internet Movie Database
• Ken Loach at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• Ken Loach at MUBI
• Ken Loach Filmography
• Extensive Ken Loach Biography and Filmography
• Interview with Loach about My Name is Joe
• Interview with Loach from 1998
• Posters and Stills Gallery from the BFI
• Interview: Ken Loach about Media, Culture and the Prospects for a New Liberatory Project, Democracy & Nature, Vol. 5, No.1 (March 1999). [Ken Loach was interviewed by Theodoros Papadopoulos in December 1998].
• Interview with Ken Loach, interview about Route Irish in the Oxonian Review

Wim Wenders
Wim Wenders (2008)
Born	Ernst Wilhelm Wenders (1945-08-14) 14 August 1945 (age 66) Düsseldorf, Germany
Occupation	Film director
Years active	1967–present
Spouse	Edda Köchl (1968–74) Lisa Kreuzer (1974–78) Ronee Blakley (1979–81) Isabelle Weingarten (1981–82) Donata Wenders (1993–)
Awards	Golden Lion for The State of Things (1982) Golden Palm for Paris, Texas (1984) Cannes Film Festival Grand Jury Prize for Faraway, So Close! (1993) Silver Bear Jury Prize for The Million Dollar Hotel (2000)
Website
www.wim-wenders.com

Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders (born 14 August 1945) is a German film director, playwright, author, photographer and producer. Since 1996, Wenders has been the president of the European Film Academy in Berlin.

Early life[link]

Wenders was born in Düsseldorf into a traditional Catholic family. His father, Heinrich Wenders, was a surgeon. Use of the Dutch name, "Wim", a shortened version of the baptismal name "Wilhelm/Willem", reflected his mother's Dutch provenance, but the Dutch version was rejected by the civil registration authorities in 1945 as "unGerman".^[1] He graduated from high school in Oberhausen in the Ruhr area. He then studied medicine (1963–64) and philosophy (1964–65) in Freiburg and Düsseldorf. However, he dropped out of university studies and moved to Paris in October 1966 to become a painter. Wenders failed his entry test at France's national film school IDHEC (now La Fémis), and instead became an engraver in the studio of Johnny Friedlander, an American artist, in Montparnasse. During this time, Wenders became fascinated with cinema, and saw up to five movies a day at the local movie theater.

Set on making his obsession also his life's work, Wenders returned to Germany in 1967 to work in the Düsseldorf office of United Artists. That fall, he entered the "Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München" (University of Television and Film Munich). Between 1967 and 1970 while at the "HFF", Wenders also worked as a film critic for FilmKritik, then the Munich daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, Twen magazine, and Der Spiegel.

Wenders completed several short films before graduating from the Hochschule with a feature-length 16mm black and white film, Summer in the City.

Career[link]

Wenders began his career during the New German Cinema era of the late 1960s, making his feature directorial debut with Summer in the City (1970). Much of the distinctive cinematography in his movies is the result of a highly productive long-term collaboration with Dutch cinematographer Robby Müller. Some of his more successful and critically acclaimed movies, Paris, Texas and Wings of Desire, for example, have been the result of fruitful collaborations with avant-garde authors Peter Handke and Sam Shepard. Handke's novel, The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick was adapted for Wenders' second feature film, The Goalkeeper's Fear of the Penalty. Handke co-wrote the script for Wings of Desire and Until the End of the World, both featuring Solveig Dommartin.

Wenders has directed several highly acclaimed documentaries, most notably Buena Vista Social Club (1999), about Cuban musicians, and The Soul of a Man (2003), on American blues.

He has also directed many music videos for groups such as U2 and Talking Heads, including "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)" and "Sax and Violins". His television commercials include a UK advertisement for Carling Premier Canadian beer.

Wim Wenders at Cannes (2002)

Wenders' book, Emotion Pictures, a collection of diary essays written while a film student, was adapted and broadcast as a series of plays on BBC Radio 3, featuring Peter Capaldi as Wenders, with Gina McKee, Saskia Reeves, Dennis Hopper, Harry Dean Stanton and Ricky Tomlinson, dramatised by Neil Cargill.

Wenders was collaborating with artist/journalist and longtime friend Melinda Camber Porter on a documentary feature about his body of work, Wim Wenders - Visions on Film, when Porter passed away - the film remains incomplete.

Wenders is a member of the advisory board of World Cinema Foundation. The project was founded by Martin Scorsese and aimed at finding and reconstructing world cinema films that have been long neglected. He serves as a Jury Member for the digital studio Filmaka, a platform for undiscovered filmmakers to show their work to industry professionals.^[2]

In 2011 he was selected to stage the 2013 cycle of Richard Wagner's Ring der Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival,^[3] a reflection of his capacity to produce imaginative tributes to great works of art.^[4] The project fell through when he insisted on filming in 3-D, which the Wagner family found too costly and disruptive.^[5]

While promoting his 3-D dance film, Pina, Wenders told the Documentary channel Blog in December 2011 that he has already begun work on a new 3-D documentary, this one about architecture.^[6] He also has said that he will only be working in the 3-D film format from now on.^[7]

Selected exhibitions[link]

2006

Wim Wenders: Immagini dal pianeta terra, Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome, Italy Journey to Onomichi – Photos by Wim and Donata Wenders, Omotesando Hills, Tokyo, Japan Pictures from the Surface of the Earth, images from touring exhibition, Salon of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, Yugoslavia Dark Places, curated by Joshua Decter, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA

2005

The Forest: Politics, Poetics, and Practice, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC Through the Lens, group exhibition, C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, MD

2004–05

Pictures from the Surface of the Earth, ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Århus C, Denmark

2004

Pictures from the Surface of the Earth, Australia and Japan, James Cohan Gallery, New York, NY Between The Lines, group exhibition, James Cohan Gallery, New York, NY Images of Time and Place: Contemporary Views of Landscape, group exhibition, Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx, NY Wim Wenders, Galleria Marabini, Bologna, Italy Through the Lens: Eight Photographers, group exhibition, C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland.

2003

Wim Wenders, James Cohan Gallery, New York, NY Wim Wenders, Galerie Judin Belot, Zurich, Switzerland

2000–04

Pictures from the Surface of the Earth, touring exhibition: Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2001), Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao (2002), Haunch of Venison, London (2003); Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2003); City Art Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand; Millennium Art Museum, Beijing, China; Shanghai Museum of Art, Shanghai, China; Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China (2004)

2000

Buena Vista Social Club, Rose Gallery, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, CA

1996

Wim Wenders: Landscape and Memory, Gallery of Contemporary Photography, Santa Monica Wim Wenders: Photos, in conjunction with the publication, Wim Wenders: Photos, Munich Goethe Institute (1996), Goethe Institutes worldwide

1995

Wim Wenders: Landscape and Memory, Gallery of Contemporary Photography, Santa Monica, CA

1993–95

Wim Wenders Photo Exhibition, in conjunction with the publication, Once, Munich: Schirmer/ Mosel (2001), touring exhibition: Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome (1993); Villa delle Rose, Bologna (1994); FNAC, Paris (1994); Parco, Tokyo (1994); FNAC, Berlin (1995); Villa Rufolo, Ravello (1995)

Wim Wenders (2005)

1989–94

Wim Wenders Photographs, touring exhibition: Galerie F. C Gundlach, Hamburg (1989); Galerie Marie-Louise Wirth, Zürich (1990); Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film, Munich (1991); Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles (1991); Shibuya Seibu Dept. Store, Tokyo (1992); Kiyomizu

1989–94

Temple, Kyoto (1992); Musée de L'Elysée, Lausanne (1992); Amerika Haus, Berlin (1992); Venice Biennale (1993); Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek (1993); Sala Parpallo Palau Dels Scala, Valencia (1994); San Telmo Museum, San Sebastian (1994)

1986–92

Written in the West, in conjunction with the publication, Written in the West, Munich: Schirmer/Mosel (1987), touring exhibition: Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (1986); Encontros de Fotografia, Coimbra (1987); Palazzo della Triennale di Milano (1988); Film Society of Miami (1988); Goethe Institut, Stockholm (1988); Goethe Institut, Copenhagen (1988); Saint-Yrieix-La-Perche (1990); Städtische Galerie Schwarzes Kloster, Freiburg (Breisgau) (1992)

Legacy and honors[link]

Wenders has already received many awards, including the Golden Lion for The State of Things at the Venice Film Festival (1982); the Palme d'Or at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival for his movie Paris, Texas; and Best Direction for Wings of Desire in the 1987 Bavarian Film Awards^[8] and the 1987 Cannes Film Festival. In 1993 he won the Bavarian Film Awards for Best Director for Faraway, So Close!.^[8] In 2004, he received the Master of Cinema Award of the International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg. He was awarded the Leopard of Honour at the Locarno International Film Festival in 2005. In 2012 his dance film Pina was nominated for the Best Documentary Feature of the 84th Academy Awards.^[9]

He has been awarded honorary doctorates at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1989 and at the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium in 2005.

Filmography[link]

Selected bibliography[link]

• Wenders, Wim (1984), Paris, Texas, Nördlingen: Greno, ISBN 978-3-921568-11-8 
• Wenders, Wim (1986), Emotion pictures: Essays und Filmkritiken, 1968-1984, Frankfurt: Verlag der Autoren, ISBN 978-3-88661-078-5 
• Wenders, Wim (1989), Emotion pictures: reflections on cinema, London: Faber and Faber, ISBN 978-0-571-15271-1 
• Shepard, Sam; Wenders, Wim (1991), Paris, Texas: Screenplay, New York: Ecco Press, ISBN 978-0-88001-266-9 
• Wenders, Wim; Hofmann, Michael (1992), The logic of images: essays and conversations, London: Faber and Faber, ISBN 978-0-571-16517-9 
• Wenders, Wim; Handke, Peter (1998) (in German), Der Himmel über Berlin: Ein Filmbuch von Wim Wenders und Peter Handke, Berlin: Suhrkamp Verlag, ISBN 978-3-518-02406-5 
• Wenders, Wim; Wenders, Donata (2000), The heart is a sleeping Beauty: the Million Dollar Hotel - a film book, New York: teNeues, ISBN 978-3-8238-5468-5 
• Wenders, Wim; Hofmann, Michael (2000), My time with Antonioni: the diary of an extraordinary experience, London: Faber and Faber, ISBN 978-0-571-20076-4 
• Wenders, Wim (2001), Written in the West, New York: teNeues, ISBN 978-3-8238-5469-2 
• Wenders, Wim (2001), Once: pictures and stories, New York: D.A.P./Schirmer/Mosel, ISBN 978-1-891024-25-2 
• Wenders, Wim; Hofmann, Michael (2001), On film: essays and conversations, London: Faber and Faber, ISBN 978-0-571-20718-3 
• Lindbergh, Peter; Wenders, Wim (2002), Peter Lindbergh: stories, Santa Fe: Arena Editions, ISBN 978-1-892041-64-7 
• Steinhilber, Berthold; Wenders, Wim (2003), Ghost towns of the American West, New York: Harry N. Abrams, ISBN 978-0-8109-4508-1 
• Wenders, Wim; Tawada, Yoko (2007), Where Europe begins, New York: New Directions Publishers, ISBN 978-0-8112-1702-6 

Quotes[link]

• "Sex and violence was never really my cup of tea; I was always more into sax and violins."
• "I consider Ozu my all time grand master."
• "I want to make personal films, not private films."

See also[link]

• James Cohan Gallery

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Wim Wenders

• Official website
• Wim Wenders at the Internet Movie Database
• Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database
• filmportal.de including biography, filmography and photos
• Wenders Bibliography (via UC Berkeley)
• Wim Wenders Interview (portuguese subtitles; Flash/HTML5)
• Interview with Wim Wenders (in three parts; Flash/HTML5)
• Interview with Wim Wenders (German)
• CNN interview with Wim Wenders
• Wim Wenders's Cinématon - A 4 minutes portrait by Gérard Courant (1982) (Flash)