Which film will be Germany's Oscar submission?

Germany will reportedly decide between these ten films for their Oscar submission this year which they'll announce near the end of this month. If you've seen any of these pictures, do share your opinion!

• And Tomorrow the Entire World by Julia von Heinz 
• Berlin Alexanderplatz by Burhan Qurbani, 
• Crescendo #makemusicnotwar by Dror Zahavi
• Curveball by Johannes Naber, 
• Enfant Terrible by Oskar Roehler, 
• Fritzi: A Revolutionary Tale by Ralf Kukula and Matthias Brun
• I've Never Been to New York by Philipp Stölzl
• Undine by Christian Petzold
• A Wet Dog by Damir Lukacevic
• When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Caroline Link. 

Not many of these films have much in the way of an international profile at this writing with the exception of Undine, which is currently making the festival rounds.

Most of these filmmakers would be first time submittees with two exceptions: Undine's critical darling auteur Christian Petzold was submitted once for Barbara (2012) though no nomination came. Why he wasn't submitted for Phoenix (which surely would have snagged a nomination?!?) we'll never understand. When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, a drama about a Jewish family fleeing the Nazis, is from Caroline Link. Germany's submitted her films successfully twice:  Beyond Silence (1997) was a nominee and Nowhere in Africa (2002) was a winner. 

GERMANY'S OSCAR STATS
(We're including West Germany and East Germany in the stats as well as unified Germany)
Submitting since 1956
63 Total Submissions
20 Nominations (plus 4 Finalists)
3 Wins

Key Submissions Over the Years:

The Tin Drum, written by Oscar favourite Jean-Claude Carriere, was Germany's first winner

• The Captain of Köpenick (1956) nominee
• The Devil Strikes at Night (1957) nominee
• Arms and the Man (1958) nominee
• The Bridge (1959) nominee
  ..four consecutive nominations when the Category was first created though that was more common back then since France and Italy both had runs like that as well. (The longest nomination streak ever was Italy with 6 in a row from 1974-1979)
  
  
• The Pedestrian (1973) nominee
• The Glass Cell (1978) nominee
• The Tin Drum (1979) winner
• Lili Marleen (1981) ...marks the only time Germany ever submitted a film from the great and prolific Rainer Werner Fassbinder. This year, Germany might actually submit a biopic about him, Enfant Terrible. Alas, Lili Marleen wasn't nominated
• Fitzcarraldo (1982) ... Werner Herzog's won Best Director and Cannes and the film was a BAFTA nominee but it didn't delight the Academy for some reason
• Angry Harvest (1985) nominee
• Wings of Desire (1987) ... one of those beloved famous international films that feels like it was nominated it's so famous. But it wasn't!  
• Jacob the Liar (1976) nominee... the only nominee from East Germany
  
  West and East Germany were formally reunited on October 3rd, 1990
  
  
• The Nasty Girl (1990) nominee
• Schtonk! (1992) nominee
• Beyond Silence (1997) nominee
• Run Lola Run (1998)  ... one of the biggest arthouse hits ever to be passed over by the Oscars. Too genre or youth-friendly?
• Aimée & Jaguar (1999) ... this lesbian WW II drama managed a Globe nomination for foreign film but not the parallel Oscar category
• Nowhere in Africa (2002) winner

Good Bye, Lenin! -- how did that one miss?

• Good Bye, Lenin! (2003) ... an international arthouse success that introduced American audiences to Daniel Brühl who is now a Hollywood regular. It scored both BAFTA and Globe nominations for Best Foreign Film but Oscar passed. We still can't figure why.
• Downfall (2004) nominee
• Sophie Scholl - The Final Days (2005) nominee
• The Lives of Others (2006) winner
• The Baadher Meinhof Complex (2008) nominee
• The White Ribbon (2009) nominee
• Pina (2011) Wim Wenders dance documentary was a finalist but not a nominee. It did however score a nomination for Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars
• Two Lives (2013) finalist but wasn't nominated
• Labyrinth of Lies (2015) finalist but wasn't nominated
• Toni Erdmann (2016) nominee
• In the Fade (2017) Oscar finalist and Golden Globe winner for Best Foreign Language Film but wasn't nominated
• Never Look Away (2018) nominee

Most Frequently Submitted Directors
For whatever reason Germany doesn't have true favourites when it comes to Oscar submissions like so many other countries do. Only six directors have been sent multiple times and none more than thrice.

1. Wim Wenders (3 submissions, 0 nominations, 1 finalist)
2. [tie] Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck and Caroline Link (2 submissions, 2 nominations, 1 win) 
3. [tie] Michael Vernhoeven and Bernhard Wicki (2 submissions, 1 nomination)
4. [tie] Werner Herzog and Fatih Akin (2 submissions, 0 nominations)

Most Oscar-honored German artists

Art director Hans Drier's third Oscar was for Sunset Blvd (1950)

1. Hans Drier ... 23 nominations and 3 wins for Art Direction
2. Franz Waxman ... 12 nominations and 2 wins for Score
3. Hans Zimmer ... 11 nominations and 1 win for Score
4. André Previn .... 6 nominations and 4 wins for Score
5. Friedrich Hollaender ... 4 nominations in music categories
6. Ray Heindorf .... 3 nominations and 2 wins for Score
7. Karl Freund ... 3 nominations and 1 win in Cinematography plus a Technical Oscar
8. Ernst Lubitsch ... 3 nominations for Director plus 1 Honorary Oscar
9. Hanns Kräly ... 3 nominations, 1 win for writing
10. [tie] Michael Ballhaus and Wim Wenders ... 3 nominations in Cinematography and Documentary respectively
11. [tie] Luise Rainer (promoted as "Austrian" in the 30s but actually German) and Christoph Waltz (Austrian-German) ... both received 2 nominations and 2 wins for acting
12. [tie] Michael Fassbender (Irish-German), Ernst Toch, Tom Held,  Max Lang and Jan Lachaeur ... 2 nominations for acting, score, editing, and animated short x 2, respectively

Comments

[Peggy Sue]

Great post. I wasn't aware of how regularly they get nominated.

[Amory Blaine]

I love Goodbye Lenin! Why no Oscar nomination? My guess: not dour enough.

[Dan Humphrey]

I've heard wildly different reactions to BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ, from misfire to masterpiece. Considering how good the two earlier adaptations of the source novel are (Phil Jutzi's 1931 film and R.W. Fassbinder's 1980 miniseries) I really want to see it. It certainly has its fans.

[jules]

I've seen Undine. It's no Phoenix or Barbara, but I enjoyed it quite a bit - it's a love story that's reminiscent of a dark fairy tale, and quite a few shots (including the one that forms the basis for the poster) are breathtaking.

In the Fade and Run Lola Run are both so good.

[Brittani]

I forgot that Phoenix missed, that film was excellent. I liked their submission last year, System Crasher. I'm sure I'll check out whatever they submit this year as well. (and more if I can)

[Glenn Dunks]

I reckon PINA may have made it in to the category today, which doesn't help Wim Wenders but I suspect an honorary Oscar is coming his way soon enough, And a worthy recipient he would be. Likewise Herzog. I'm surprised they haven't already tbh.

[Evan]

I don't think they'll choose Undine. Petzold is the most internationally acclaimed director on that list, but (as you pointed out) they haven't shown him much love for him in the past and Undine is so, so weird. It also competed against Berlin Alexanderplatz and last year's submission System Crasher at the most recent Lola Awards and walked away empty-handed, compared to BA's 5 awards and SC's 8.

My gut says Berlin Alexanderplatz (which has great local reviews, tragic international ones) vs. And Tomorrow The Entire World (which is topical and may have a better chance of success outside Germany).

[Pascal]

Berlin Alexanderplatz was way too tiresome ; Curveball is a very smart movie on the war in Irak and all the lies around it, very funny and strong ; Fritzi is a very well written animated drama, although not a huge fan of the animation ; Undine was not convincing to me but many liked it in Berlin

[Patrick]

Don't forget head-on from fath skin with the incredible sibel kikelli and birol übel, who passed away last months. And also don't forget the masterpiece Victoria, which we don't submitted cause the stupid regularity that the movie had to much English and Spanish language in it. 2,5 hours with many location changes, but without any editing. The acting was flawless, as usual from Frederick Lau. Take a look please! Breathtaking.

Also really great was "3 days in quiberon" a black and white movie about the last days of romy Schneider. So great, especially the acting and the music.

[Spencer]

What a shame that they have left out one of my favourites from the Inside Out Festival this year, "NO HARD FEELINGS"....