Werner Herzog: A selection of cult films

The director is shown here receiving the German Film Award's honorary prize in 2013. On December 7 he is being honored in Berlin with the European Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award. Having directed over 60 feature and documentary films, his oeuvre comprises a wide variety of genres — and many influential works.

Herzog demonstrated his impressive artistic range in his debut feature film, "Signs of Life." When it came out in 1968, the period known as New German Cinema was already thriving, and Herzog emerged as another exceptional talent in the country. The film tells the story of German soldiers going crazy during an otherwise uneventful World War II assignment on a Greek island.

Two years later, Herzog presented an unusual work at the Cannes film festival: All actors in "Even Dwarfs Started Small" are persons of short stature. Anarchy and revolution, individualism and society were some of the themes the film explored. Herzog would regularly come back to them in later works.

Set on the Amazon River in South America, Herzog's 1972 epic historical drama immediately became a cult film. One of the reasons behind the success of "Aguirre, the Wrath of God" was lead actor Klaus Kinski, who later collaborated with Herzog on several other films. The eccentric actor and the director became one of the most interesting duos of New German Cinema.

The drama explores the historical 19th-century figure of Kaspar Hauser, who claimed to have spent his entire youth chained in a tiny cellar. The lead actor, Bruno Schleinstein (credited as Bruno S.), also had a difficult childhood and grew up in mental institutions. Herzog has often said that Bruno S. was the best actor he ever worked with, even though he didn't have any formal acting training.

Five years later, Herzog moved on from historical dramas to a classic story of literature and cinema, by revisiting F.W. Murnau's 1922 Expressionist horror film, "Nosferatu." It was the second collaboration between Herzog and actor Klaus Kinski — who was naturally given the lead role of the nobleman, Count Dracula.

At the end of the 1970s, Herzog released a second film on top of "Nosferatu." "Woyzeck" is an adaptation of an unfinished play by German playwright Georg Büchner. It once again starred Kinski, this time in the title role of a battered soldier.

Herzog officially reached the world's peak of cinema with "Fitzcarraldo," which earned him the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1982. Shot in Peru and Brazil, the movie infamously features an indigenous crew transporting a steamship over a mountain. Actors Klaus Kinski (center) and Claudia Cardinale (right) starred.

A few years after the death of Kinski in 1991, Herzog revisited his tumultuous yet productive relationship with the controversial actor in the documentary "My Best Fiend." The film offers a glimpse into the creative partnership that led them to make five films together, despite various heated and even violent altercations.

Herzog moved on to Hollywood, where he started working with big stars, such as Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes in "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" from 2009 (pictured above). That film and "My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done" were both selected for the Venice Film Festival competition in 2009, making Herzog the only filmmaker to date to have entered two films simultaneously into competition.

Alongside his films starring Hollywood actors, Herzog keeps directing compelling documentaries. Shot in 3D, "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" shows his exploration of the Chauvet Cave in southern France, which contains the oldest human-painted images yet discovered. As always, Herzog narrates the documentary himself, with his trademark Bavarian accent.

Four years ago, the director surprised his fans again with a feature film starring Nicole Kidman. In "Queen of the Desert," she portrays real-life British historian and adventurer Gertrude Bell. The historical drama premiered at the Berlinale but received mostly negative reviews.

The documentary that followed was positively received. In "Lo and Behold," Herzog reflects on the existential impact of the internet and artificial intelligence, interviewing experts on the opportunities and risks of new technologies.