Veteran German filmmaker Wim Wenders believes the coronavirus pandemic and the rise of streaming services pose an existential threat to the theatrical experience. The director, considered a major figure in the New German Cinema with his critically-acclaimed movies such as Wings of Desire, "Paris, Texas" and "Alice in the Cities", urged his fellow filmmakers to rise to the challenge posed by the pandemic and the streamers. Johnny Depp’s San Sebastian Film Festival Award Gets Denounced by Female Spanish Filmmakers.

"(The pandemic) made me realise how much responsibility we have as filmmakers, and that this crisis that the whole of humanity is going through is also a task for us filmmakers," Wenders told Variety on the sidelines of the Sarajevo Film Festival. Wenders is at the Bosnian festival where he was felicitated with an honorary Heart of Sarajevo Award in recognition of a lifetime's achievement in film. Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino Feels His Son Leo Might Like Kill Bill When He Turns 5.

The filmmaker, who attended the screening of Bosnian filmmaker Danis Tanovic's movie "Not So Friendly Neighborhood Affair", said watching the film was a "refreshing, beautiful experience" for him. "I realised how much we all miss the movie experience in a theater, and that we all have to fight for this to continue," he said. Wenders believes that watching movies in theatres is quite "enriching" for cinema lovers and they should preserve this experience, instead of opting for streaming.

"I think it's all up to us to insist that this culture and this form of experience and this way of living continue, because it is something that is really enriching our lives,” the 76-year-old director said. "It depends on us to fight for it and make sure that if we have a choice, that we rather go to the movie theatre than the comfortable streaming thing at home, which is not such a great experience after all," he added. He lamented over the fact that the pandemic has led to the exponential growth of streaming services in the last one and a half years.

"These 18 months made us get used to – much quicker than we anticipated – the idea that there are other ways to see movies, and we all got used to streaming services," he said.

"I see films on streaming services. I don't watch them together with other people. And I have not as good a memory of all these films than those films that I actually saw together with others…. It's a different experience, and therefore, it doesn't really hold onto you," Wenders said. The filmmaker, who started his career 50 years ago with the 1971 movie "Summer in the City", believes cinema has the power to help the world in the face of a crisis.

"If you look at the history of cinema, it's always been very helpful... in all the crises after the First and Second World War, and the Great Depression," Wenders said.

"Cinema has always been a helpful tool. And cinema has always thrived in these crises and afterwards to remind us what we're here for and how to live and how to live better and to be responsible for the planet. And I think cinema has a great task in this way in the near future," he added. The idea of truth is an "endangered species", said Wenders and he believes that filmmakers have an important role in preserving it. "We also live through a crisis of truth on the planet right now. The idea of truth is also an endangered species. "And filmmakers... have a great task to give people back a certain confidence and an idea that truth exists, and that we are able to tell true stories, and that we are not all dependent on all the fake stuff we get showered with through the internet," he added.

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