Germany's Submissions for Oscar Consideration
Thursday, August 13, 2015 at 12:50PM 
Having had no luck scoring a nomination for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar since Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon six years ago, Germany has just announced the shortlist for consideration as the country's entry for the 88th Academy Awards. The eight films listed are:
- 13 Minutes (Elser) by Oliver Hirschbiegel
- Head Full of Honey (Honig im Kopf) by Til Schweiger
- Jack by Edward Berger
- Labyrinth of Lies (Im Labyrinth des Schweigens) by Giulio Ricciarelli
- Sanctuary (Freistatt) by Marc Brummund
- Schmidts Katze by Marc Schlegel
- Victoria by Sebastian Schipper
- We Are Young. We Are Strong. (Wir sind jung. Wir sind stark.) by Burhan Qurbani
Let's take a closer look...
With 13 Minutes, Oliver Hirschbiegel, previously submitted for The Experiment in 2001 and nominated for Downfall in 2004, places an Oscar-safe bet with his telling of the real-life story of Johann Georg Elser's (Christian Friedel) failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler in 1939. It's about as exciting as history lessons get, but everyone involved certainly knows what they're doing, and given the subject matter I wouldn't be shocked to see 13 Minutes emerge as the eventual submission.
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While international audiences might be most familiar with Til Schweiger's Nazi-killing German soldier Hugo Stiglitz from Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, he's been an almost unavoidable presence on German screens big and small for two decades now, in recent years cranking out entry after entry of his signature brand of inoffensive rom-com. For his tragicomic effort Head Full of Honey he enlisted veteran comedian Dieter Hallervorden to play an Alzheimer's-stricken retiree coming to live with his son and granddaughter (Schweigers Til and Emma, respectively). The film ended up being Germany's most-attended of 2014, but if that enthusiasm can translate towards Oscar remains to be seen.
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Reviewing it at last year's Berlinale, Variety's Guy Lodge was cautiously favorable towards "Edward Berger's well-acted social-realist drama" Jack. Praising Jens Harant's cinematography and the cast led by first-timer Ivo Pietzcker in the title role as a ten-year-old taking on grown-up responsibilities when he and his younger brother are all but abandoned by their hard-working, hard-partying single mother, Lodge calls the film "fine, but hardly inspired."
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Nahaniel gave Labyrinth of Lies high marks when he reviewed it from TIFF last year, calling it an "impressive debut feature" from director Giulio Ricciarelli and singling out Alexander Fehling's "very well modulated" performance, which "grows more and more intense" as the film goes on. The second based-on-true-events title on this list to deal with the country's Nazi past, Labyrinth of Lies follows an idealistic young prosecutor working to reveal the extent of German war crimes and atrocities a decade after World War II. Nominated for four German Film Awards, its chances of becoming the official Oscar submission cannot be dismissed.
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Louis Hofmann, declared Best Newcomer at this year's Bavarian Film Award, plays Wolfgang, a rebellious 14-year-old sent to a foster home for difficult children in the 1968-set coming-of-age drama Sanctuary from director Marc Brummund. The film received mostly positive reviews, but isn't exactly buzzing with Oscar-anticipation. (You may want to look for Sense8 star Max Riemelt in a supporting role, though.)
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As the only flat-out comedy on the list, Marc Schlegel's Schmidts Katze is the least likely contender in the race, and given that even its German theatrical release is still six weeks off, there aren't any reviews to be found which might reject that assessment.
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This writer's favorite film of the year so far, Sebastian Schipper's Victoria, recent winner of a sweeping six German Film Awards, should be considered a shoo-in for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, if it wasn't for a teeny, tiny problem: it's not technically a foreign language film. Most of this Berlin-set, shot-in-one-take drama's dialogue is indeed in English, but it's English as a second language, spoken and thus affected by native speakers of German or Spanish. The Academy has accepted this submission "with reservations," a final decision "regarding the proportion of English in the film" is awaited.
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We Are Young. We Are Strong., Afghan-German director Burhan Qurbani's sadly relevant dramatization of the 1992 Rostock-Lichtenhagen riots, was nominated for three German Film Awards, winning Best Supporting Actor (Joel Basman). But the reviews were mixed, and given some of the other films presented here, this one seems like a long shot.
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The final pick for submission as Germany's Oscar entry will be announced on Thursday, August 27, 2015.
Reader Comments (12)
I just saw and loved Christian Petzold's 'Phoenix'. Was that on last year's shortlist, or did they not consider it at all? My impression is the movie wasn't particularly well received in Germany, is this true?
Coco...I agree with your assessment of Phoenix. However, according to the Wikipedia entry for the film, it premiered in Germany on 25 September 2014, which would have made it eligible for last year but not for this year.
I loved, loved, loved "Victoria" and would be really disappointed if it weren't nominated, but even I have to admit that they may have a point. Maybe it can sneak in for best cinematography? I can't imagine anything being better this year, but I also believe it's probably to similar in that respect to last years winner. One thing's for sure, it's going to be really difficult for me to find a better film this year.
Thanks for including the trailers --I'm rooting for Labyrinth but only because Victoria will prove ineligible and the others are as yet unfamiliar
VICTORIA by FAR!!! Please make it happen!!! Winner of SIX GERMAN FILM AWARDS (Picture, Directing, Best Actress, Best Actor (Frederick Lau), Best Score, Best Cinematography!!!)
Please No Nazi Film more from my Homecountry! PLEASE!
Coco: Phoenix was actually on last year's shortlist. I don't remember hearing all that much about it when it came out here - certainly not the raves it's been getting on its US release - but that might just be a reflection of my Twitter feed, not a general consensus.
Felix: I think a cinematography nod for Victoria would be well deserved, but it all depends on how the release is handled and how far adopt films are willing to go to campaign for it. It's not unprecedented for a foreign film to spill over to the "bigger" categories, but certainly more difficult without a Best Foreign Language Film nomination to back it up.
Nathaniel: Until there's confirmation I refuse to even think about the possibility of Victoria not getting in. :)
Great exhaustive write-up. Thanks!
thanks for the write-up and the trailers! I just recently moved back to Germany, now it is definetely time to catch up on german cinema.
Me too wants something that's NOT connected to Nazis/WWII or the cold war/DDR timeline, but something contemporary.
I doubt Head full of Honey will make it. *lol*
(though I don't mind the mention of it-might be the best movie directed by Schweiger)
I hope Victoria will make the cut, but I admit I've not seen it yet. But from what I've seen, it seems to be very thrilling.
Saw 13 MINUTES this morning. Not bad, but if it is the best German film of 2105, then it must have been a lean year. I hope they don't submit it to try and appeal to the WW2 Nazi-themed leanings of the Academy, because I think that strategy would fail (surely even to them this film would feel a little "been here, seen that").
So guys, it seems they chose 'Labyrinth of Lies'. I haven't seen it, but I'm really bummed that Victoria was apparently not eligible. While I understand the reasons it hurts to know that such a brilliant piece of work will probably be ignored. Oh well, here's hoping it somehow breaks out in the US Market.
This is a tad disappointing, but as so many of you guys already mentioned that "Victoria" might be not eligible not so surprising. And I think "Labyrinth" is really good, and interesting because it does not deal with the actual Nazi time, but with its repercussions and the long aftermaths decades later.