Wim Wenders and Martin Scorsese have been recruited as supporters of the 1st Frankfurt International Film Festival which is launched on January 9 with Herve Le Roux's comedy On Appelle Ca ... Le Printemps.

While Wenders has agreed to serve as the patron for this year's event (January 9-16), which builds on the previous annual Frankfurter Filmschau of local filmmaking talent, Scorsese has selected a number of classic Italian films from the 1940s to 60s ranging from Otto E Mezzo and Senso to Umberto D and L'Ecclisse to accompany the German premiere of his documentary Il Mio Viaggio In Italia.

In addition to sidebars dedicated to the Korean director Lee Myung-Se, cinema from the Philippines, and the French documentary filmmaker Jean Claude Rousseau, the festival's "Out For The World" panorama of world cinema will have an eclectic line-up featuring such recent titles as L'Anglaise Et Le Duc (France), Pistol Opera (Japan), A Janela (Portugal), Osmosis Jones (USA), Running Out Of Cool (Germany), Dias De Nietsche Em Turin (Brazil), Lai Man-Wai (Hong Kong), The Dark Night (Russia), Harvard Man (USA), and Wadi Grand Canyon (Israel/France/Italy).