Rights to all of Wim Wenders’ films still held by third parties – such as Hamburg producer Peter Schwarzkopff - are to be acquired by the newly founded Wim Wenders Foundation (WWF) in Düsseldorf by the end of this year.

The acquisition of these rights has been financed by the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the City of Düsseldorf and the Cultural Foundation of the Federal States, as well as private donors such as the band Die Toten Hosen.

Next year will then see the filmmaker, who was born in Düsseldorf in August 1945, transferring the rights he has personally held for more recent productions into the responsibility of the Foundation which will be managed by Carolin von Roth, previously his PA at Neue Road Movies.

In addition, Wenders will also be entrusting the Foundation with his photographic, artistic and literary outpourings to be gathered in one place, archived and made accessible to the general public as well as for study purposes and academic research.

WWF has also set itself the goal of supporting innovative narrative art and will be joining forces with the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW in the coming year to launch the so-called Wim Wenders Bursary.

The stipend is intended to support young filmmakers and video artists “whose vision is to tell stories with new aesthetic and technical means and to enrich and renew our visual language,“ according to the Filmstiftung.