Werner Herzog receives the Donostia Award at an opening gala at the 74st San Sebastian Film Festival

“I feel as I belong to the Basque community and I receive this award from the poets”, said Werner Herzog.

Orlando Bloom and Werner Herzog ©Iñaki Luis Fajardo

Werner Herzog received the Festival's highest honour from actor Orlando Bloom, who features on the cast of his latest film “Bucking Fastard”, screened earlier at the Victoria Eugenia Theatre. The Festival wishes to highlight a career marked by an "exploration of the limits of the cinema and by an always extraordinary, free-thinking and bold approach".

After receiving an standing ovation, Herzog confessed his "connection" with the Basque people ever since directing Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes / Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) and recalled the filming of Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010), during which he felt a deep connection with the people who created the cave paintings thousands of years ago.

He also praised Basque culture and the Basque language, describing it as "the most amazing language, which precedes all languages in Europe", and expressed his admiration for bertsolaris (oral improvisers), as representatives of a community of poets, "not knowing exactly what they are talking about but I feel a community; I feel as if I belong there. I receive this here from the poets", he concluded.

For his part, Bloom has highlighted Herzog as an "extraordinary filmmaker" with an "unmistakable voice". "Whether exploring the extremes of nature, the strange recesses of human behaviour or the boundaries between fact and fiction, Werner has always approached cinema as an adventure," he stated.

Werner Herzog erhält den Donostia-Preis im Rahmen einer Eröffnungsgala beim 74. Filmfestival von San Sebastián

„Ich fühle mich als Teil der baskischen Gemeinschaft und nehme diesen Preis von den Dichtern entgegen“, sagte Werner Herzog.

Orlando Bloom und Werner Herzog ©Iñaki Luis Fajardo

Werner Herzog erhielt die höchste Auszeichnung des Festivals aus den Händen des Schauspielers Orlando Bloom, der in seinem neuesten Film „Bucking Fastard“ mitspielt, der zuvor im Theater Victoria Eugenia gezeigt worden war. Das Festival möchte damit eine Karriere würdigen, die geprägt ist von einer „Erforschung der Grenzen des Kinos und einer stets außergewöhnlichen, freidenkerischen und mutigen Herangehensweise“.

Nach stehenden Ovationen bekannte sich Herzog zu seiner „Verbundenheit“ mit dem baskischen Volk, die seit der Regiearbeit an „Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes“ (1972) bestehe, und erinnerte an die Dreharbeiten zu „Cave of Forgotten Dreams“ (2010), bei denen er eine tiefe Verbundenheit mit den Menschen verspürte, die vor Tausenden von Jahren die Höhlenmalereien geschaffen hatten.

Er lobte zudem die baskische Kultur und die baskische Sprache, die er als „die erstaunlichste Sprache, die allen Sprachen Europas vorausgeht“ bezeichnete, und brachte seine Bewunderung für die Bertsolaris (volkstümliche Dichter und Improvisatoren) als Vertreter einer Dichtergemeinschaft zum Ausdruck: „Ich weiß zwar nicht genau, wovon sie sprechen, aber ich spüre eine Gemeinschaft; ich habe das Gefühl, dorthin zu gehören. Das empfange ich hier von den Dichtern“, schloss er.

Bloom seinerseits hat Herzog als „außergewöhnlichen Filmemacher“ mit einer „unverwechselbaren Handschrift“ hervorgehoben. „Ob er nun die Extreme der Natur, die seltsamen Abgründe menschlichen Verhaltens oder die Grenzen zwischen Realität und Fiktion erforscht – Werner hat das Kino stets als Abenteuer betrachtet“, erklärte er.

Werner Herzog’s new film, BUCKING FASTARD, premiered on 3 September 2026 at the Venice Film Festival. The film stars Kate Mara, Rooney Mara, Orlando Bloom and Domhnall Gleeson. Peter Zeitlinger was once again behind the camera.

Kate and Rooney Mara, Werner Herzog, Orlando Bloom ©Jacopo Salvi

The Irish-American co-production Bucking Fastard tells the story of two sisters, Jean and Joan Holbrooke (Kate Mara and Rooney Mara), whose bond is so strong that they speak in unison, love the same man and share the same dreams. They even make the same slips of the tongue at the same time.

Rooney Mara, Kate Mara ©Jacopo Salvi

We cannot see the world as they see it, but we do see how the world reacts to them – through the courts and the press, through those who wish to help them and those who wish to exploit them, through the eyes of tame and wild animals, and even through their own echoes at the earth’s core.

The fictionalised plot was inspired by the true story of the identical twins Greta and Freda Chaplin, who made headlines in the British tabloid press in the early 1980s. The film’s title is based on a slip of the tongue that the Chaplins both made at the same time in court.

v.li. Alberto Barbera (Festival Director), Orlando Bloom, Rooney Mara, Clara Wu, Werner Herzog, Kate Mara, Domhnall Gleeson ©Jacopo Salvi

Werner Herzog`s neuer Film BUCKING FASTARD hatte am 3. September 2026 Premiere während der Filmfestspiele Venedig. In den Hauptrollen sind Kate Mara, Rooney Mara, Orlando Bloom, und Domhnall Gleeson zu sehen. Peter Zeitlinger hat wieder die Kamera übernommen.

Kate and Rooney Mara, Werner Herzog, Orlando Bloom ©Jacopo Salvi

Die irisch-amerikanische Koproduktion „Bucking Fastard“ handelt von den zwei Schwestern Jean und Joan Holbrooke (Kate Mara und Rooney Mara), die eine so extreme Bindung zueinander haben, dass sie im Gleichklang sprechen, denselben Mann lieben und dieselben Träume teilen. Sie machen sogar simultan dieselben Versprecher.

Rooney Mara, Kate Mara ©Jacopo Salvi

Wir können die Welt nicht so sehen, wie sie sie sehen, aber wir sehen, wie die Welt auf sie reagiert – durch Gerichte und die Presse, durch jene, die helfen wollen, und jene, die sie ausnutzen wollen, durch die Augen von zahmen und wilden Tieren und sogar durch ihre eigenen Echos im Kern der Erde.

Die fiktionalisierte Handlung wurde vom wahren Fall der eineiigen Zwillinge Greta und Freda Chaplin inspiriert, die Anfang der 1980er-Jahre für Schlagzeilen in der britischen Boulevardpresse sorgten. Der Titel des Films beruht auf einem Versprecher, den die Chaplins gleichzeitig vor Gericht äußerten.

v.li. Alberto Barbera (Festival Director), Orlando Bloom, Rooney Mara, Clara Wu, Werner Herzog, Kate Mara, Domhnall Gleeson ©Jacopo Salvi

German film director and screenwriter Werner Herzog receives the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement from US film director Francis Ford Coppola during the opening ceremony of the 82nd International Venice Film Festival, on August 27, 2025 at Venice Lido.

Acclaimed German filmmaker Werner Herzog was honoured with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday, in recognition of his decades-long contribution to world cinema and his fearless exploration of the human condition through film.

The 82-year-old arthouse giant, who helped launch New German Cinema in the 1960s, received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement ahead of the debut of his latest documentary, Ghost Elephants, about a lost herd in Angola, on Thursday.

© ZDF

He was handed a special winged Golden Lion statue by The Godfather director and friend Francis Ford Coppola who praised the German's "limitless creativity".

"I have always tried to strive for something that goes deeper beyond what you normally see in movie theatres, a deep form of poetry that is possible in cinema," Herzog told a star-studded audience in an acceptance speech.

Guided by a search "for truth in unusual ways", he added: "I always try to do something which was sublime, or something transcendental."

Herzog "has never ceased from testing the limits of the film language," said festival artistic director Alberto Barbera in announcing the award in April.

© Lena Herzog

Search for a mysterious herd of ghost elephants in the jungles of Angola

See more at:
Films by Werner Herzog

We are delighted to welcome Werner Herzog as a participant in the event »Landscapes in Trance. Werner Herzog: Reading and Discussion« on September 14, 2023, 7 pm, at Haus der Berliner Festspiele.

Werner Herzog, director of more than 40 feature films and documentaries that rank among the milestones of cinematic art, talks with writer Jan Brandt about the importance of writing and literature for his work. From the essay »Of Walking in Ice« about a hike from Munich to Paris in the winter of 1974, which has its own magic as a meditation on life and death, to the legendary diary of the filming of »Fitzcarraldo« with Klaus Kinski and his memoir »Every Man for Himself and God Against All« [2022].

Wir freuen uns, Werner Herzog als Gast bei der Veranstaltung »Landschaft in Trance. Werner Herzog in Lesung und Gespräch«, am 14.09.2023 um 19 Uhr auf der Großen Bühne des Hauses der Berliner Festspiele begrüßen zu dürfen.

Der Regisseur von mehr als 40 Spiel- und Dokumentarfilmen, die zu den Meilensteinen der Filmkunst zählen, spricht mit dem Schriftsteller Jan Brandt über die Bedeutung des Schreibens und der Literatur für sein Werk. Von dem Essay »Vom Gehen im Eis« über eine Wanderung von München nach Paris im Winter 1974, der als Meditation über Leben und Tod eine ganz eigene Magie besitzt, bis zum legendären Tagebuch der Dreharbeiten zu »Fitzcarraldo« mit Klaus Kinski und seine Erinnerungen »Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle« [2022].

18 Juni - 1 October 2023
Exhibition
Films, Talks & Events

Read more at:
www.eyefilm.nl

HALLUCINATIONS
READING FROM TEXTS BY WERNER HERZOG
VOLKSTHEATER
Vienna October 28, 2022

With Werner Herzog and Ernst Reijseger, Mola Sylla, Harmen Fraanje - and Ernst Reijseger, Mola Sylla, Harmen Fraanje - and the Sardinian chorus Cuncordu e Tenore de Orosei

During an event at the occasion of Werner Herzog's 80th birthday, the Volkstheater in Vienna in cooperation with Viennale staged an exclusive reading by Werner Herzog from his memoires JEDER FÜR SICH UND GOTT GEGEN ALLE. The reading is accompanied by the musicians Ernst Reijseger, Mola Sylla, Harmen Fraanje and the Sardinian chorus Cuncordu e Tenore de Orosei. Music from another world.

The musicians offered three encores after the reading.

HALLUZINATIONEN
LESUNG AUS TEXTEN VON WERNER HERZOG
VOLKSTHEATER
Wien 28. Oktober 2022

Mit Werner Herzog und Ernst Reijseger, Mola Sylla, Harmen Fraanje - und Ernst Reijseger, Mola Sylla, Harmen Fraanje - sowie dem sardischen Chor Cuncordu e Tenore de Orosei

Anlässlich seines 80. Geburtstags liest Werner Herzog im Volkstheater in Wien exklusiv aus seinen, 2022 im Spätsommer beim Hanser-Verlag erschienenen, Erinnerungen an sein Leben, in musikalischer Begleitung von Ernst Reijseger, Mola Sylla und Harmen Fraanje, sowie dem traditionellen sardischen Chor Cuncordu e Tenore de Orosei. Musik aus einer anderen Welt.

Die Musiker gaben drei Zugaben nach der Lesung.

Werner Herzog is cult! Celebrated as a director and with his work premiering at international film festivals, Herzog stands not only for his non-conformist attitude among cineastes, but is also highly popular among the internet-savvy generation.

There is hardly another living director who can keep pace with the extent of Herzog’s many contributions, not to mention his imitators on social networks. The popular television entertainers Joko & Klaas parodied him, Herzog has had guest appearances on the ‘Simpsons,’ and he has drawn a great deal of attention to the ‘Star Wars’ series ‘The Mandalorian’ (since 2019) by playing the villain. In around 70 feature films and documentaries, Werner Herzog has created extraordinary visual imagery that goes far beyond what we are accustomed to seeing at the cinema.

A press tour with the team of curators takes place at the Deutsche Kinemathek on 24 August, 2022, at 11 am. Invitations will be sent out shortly before the preview.

Read more at:
www.deutsche-kinemathek.de

His life is a life of the century, his memoirs are a literary event.

"As a child," writes Werner Herzog, "I was convinced I would not reach my eighteenth year." It turned out differently. Werner Herzog's long-awaited memoir recounts a life of the century that wouldn't even fit into one of his own famous films.

A perpetually hungry boy, fleeing with his mother from bombed Munich to a desperately poor nest in the Alps. A youth with an all-bursting thirst for adventure, who hitchhikes all alone and soon finds himself in the furthest reaches of Egypt, delirious with fever, waiting for death. A lover, an enthusiast, a driven man: a man who quietly talks to the raging Klaus Kinski in the middle of the jungle, a man who sits weeping for his friend Bruce Chatwin at his deathbed.

For Werner Herzog's 80th birthday, his memoirs are published, which are anything but merely a resume. Desolate and gentle, full of lust for life and wonder at our world, this book is a literary event.

Preorder now:
Carl Hanser Literatur- und Sachbuchverlag München

"All Of Us Are In Some Sort Of Theater We Create For Ourselves" - Werner Herzog On Being A Character, 6.22.2022
"The Late Show with Stephen Colbert"

Werner Herzog is the author of the new book, "The Twilight World," and he joins Stephen for a two-part interview that begins with an examination of the theater of life, and the incredible story of the subject of his book, Hiroo Onada.

Werner Herzog Doesn't Get Nervous When He Releases New Movies, 6.24.2022
"Late Night with Seth Meyers"

Werner Herzog discusses the true story behind his novel The Twilight World, how he manages working on multiple projects at once and why he doesn't like speaking French.

“The Twilight World”

The German director’s new book of fiction, “The Twilight World”, mythologizes the real-life story of a Japanese holdout after the Second World War. By Dan Piepenbring.

Read article at:
www.newyorker.com

Werner Herzog’s Fever Dreams

The filmmaker behind “Grizzly Man” and “Fitzcarraldo” makes a late-career foray into fiction with his new book, “The Twilight World.” He feels he has finally found his medium. By Alexandra Alter.

See the whole interview

The UK’s Sheffield DocFest (June 23-28) has unveiled its 2022 line-up, including the world premiere of Werner Herzog’s "The Fire Within: Requiem For Katia And Maurice Krafft."

"The Fire Within", which is written, narrated and directed by Herzog, will feature in DocFest’s Memories strand. It chronicles the French volcanologists who died in a volcanic eruption on Japan’s Mount Uzen in 1991, leaving an archive of more than 200 hours of footage that makes up the film.

Herzog previously explored the life of Katie and Maurice Krafft in his 2016 Netflix documentary "Into The Inferno".

For more details visit:
www.sheffdocfest.com

Werner Herzog Has Never Liked Introspection

A conversation with the filmmaker about the place of literature, the toll of war, and the conviction that his writing will outlast his movies. By Michael LaPointe.

For the whole interview visit:
www.newyorker.com

The great filmmaker Werner Herzog, in his first novel, tells the incredible story of Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese soldier who defended a small island in the Philippines for twenty-nine years after the end of World War II

Hiroo Onoda is young when Japan surrenders to the USA and the Second World War ends without him knowing about it. He is old when his war finally comes to an end as well. For decades after, the soldier has continued to defend a meaningless island in the Pacific. Like a ghost, Onoda hides in the jungle, fighting with the merciless nature as well as with his own demons.

The great author and filmmaker Werner Herzog met the man with this special past himself in Japan. His first book in many years is a glowing, moving pictorial dance of the sense and nonsense of our existence.

This year, the Honorary Award of the German Documentary Film Prize goes to Werner Herzog for his life's work.

The 79-year-old director, producer and author is one of the most important and influential filmmakers worldwide. His films are considered densely narrated masterpieces that blur the line between fiction and documentary. As a director, he thus creates style-defining documentary works that are often dedicated to the elemental force of nature, the attraction of distant places or the depths of the human condition. The prize was awarded as part of the SWR Doku Festival on June 24, 2022.

Wim Wenders and Werner Herzog - ©SWR/Sigrid Faltin