Filmmaker Wim Wenders was honored with the Filmmakers Alliance (FA) Vision Award on August 14. The Directors Guild, a major sponsor of the annual FA screening, held the event in its main theatre for a sold-out audience. Actor Peter Falk, star of Wenders' cult classic, Wings of Desire (1988), presented the award.

In his acceptance speech, Wenders compared having a vision to a relay race. "You light a fire, then you have to pass that flame on to somebody else," he said. "It's passed on to somebody else, and so on. As the director, your job is to make sure nobody is foolish enough to stumble and drop the fire. In the very end, you pick it back up, if it's still burning, and you get all the credit for it. In order to survive this relay, you have to have a great deal of confidence to light that fire in the first place.

"I think there should be a persistence award created, because that's really what it's all about," he said. "The hardest thing, and it's getting harder, is to have a vision and see it through to the end. It sometimes takes years before you get to make a film. It's difficult not to drop the ball with all the pressure and expectations that are placed on young filmmakers today. It's hard to sometimes hold onto the ball, and see the vision through. At the end, filmmakers don't know why they want to make the film anymore, because there are so many elements. So make sure you know why you want to make it, and try like hell to hold onto that ball while you do."