Germany submits "I'm Your Man" to the Oscars
Wednesday, September 15, 2021 at 3:27PM by Nathaniel R
Dan Stevens and Sandra Huller in a scene from "I'm Your Man"
Germany, which has long been popular with the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has announced their submission for the 94th Oscars. They're going with the sci-fi flavored romantic comedy I'm Your Man starring British hunk Dan Stevens (who happens to be fluent in German) as an android specifically programmed to make a woman happy. The movie, distributed by Bleecker Street in the US, hits theaters a week from Friday...
THE OTHER FINALISTS
Eligibility calendars never quite align between Oscar and other countries prizes but at the Lolas (Germany's Film Awards), last year's Oscar submission And Tomorrow the World is currently up for Best Picture against I'm Your Man, their choice plus three more of this year's finalists for Oscar submissions: the three hour Tom Schilling led drama Fabian: Going to the Dogs (Dominik Graf), youth movement political drama Je suis Karl (Christian Schwochow), and an adaptation of Stefan Zweig's "Chess Story" about a lawyer imprisoned by the Nazis called The Royal Game (Philipp Stölzl). The winner of the Lolas be announced on October 1st, 2021 and it might not be I'm Your Man since the German Film Academy (about 2000 members) votes on the Lolas while the submission each year is determined by a selection committee with representatives from multiple German film companies / organizations.
Tom Schilling in "Fabian: Going to the Dogs"
In addition to those German Film Awards nominees, six other finalists were considered for Oscar submission honors: the romantic drama Copilot (Anne Zohra Berrached), the writer biopic Dear Thomas (Andreas Kleinert), a dramedy set instead a psychiatric center Die Rettung der uns bekannten Welt (co-starring and directed by the actor Til Schweiger), the documentary Femocracy (Torsten Körner), a nearly four hour documentary Mr. Bachmann and His Class (Maria Speth), and true story prison drama The Last Execution (Franziska Stünkel). Have you seen any of those films? Do sound off if you have.
STATS
Germany (we're including pre-unification and post-unification) has received 20 nominations over the history of Oscar's Best International Feature Film category winning 3 times for The Tin Drum (1979), Nowhere in Africa (2002), and The Lives of Others (2006). That makes Germany Oscar's fourth favourite country in this particular category, behind only France (38 noms / 9 wins / 3 honoraries), Italy (28 noms / 11 wins / 3 honoraries), and Spain (20 noms / 4 wins), and ahead of Sweden (16 noms / 3 wins). You can read more about Germany's long and golden history with the Oscars here in last year's post.
OSCAR SUBMISSION CHARTS
Albania through Greece
Guatemala through Norway
Pakistan through Yemen
Reader Comments (5)
Excited for this -- ANYTHING with Dan Stevens.
From my attendance at the German Film festival here in Australia a few months ago, I was happy to see that the industry is having a greta year. Amongst the high;lights were the aforemnetioned FABIAN OR GOING TO THE DOGS, tht new film version of BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ (which was eligible for last year) and the Daniel Bruhl-directed NEXT DOOR.
And I'M YOUR MAN is a good choice. A set-up that would be decending into patronisation and cliche if done in Hollywood, this script actually has some damn intelligent things to say about relationships and loneloiness in the 21st century.And, if somehow this movie really caught on in America, Maren Eggert would be one of the most worthy contenders for a "best of 2021" acting award somewhere in the awards season (Osacrs would only be a pipe dream) as she is amazing. I am only familiar with her work here and in I WAS AT HOME BUT from a couple of years ago, but I now count myself as a fan.
Super excited to watch this film on Saturday. :)
Dan Stevens and Sandra Hulle. Wait! What? I'm in
I saw I'm your man, Je suis Karl, Mr.Bachmann and his class and Copilot at the Berlin festival this spring. Je suis Karl was not as good as the other 3, but watchable... somewhat to the similar direction as Germany's last year's entry...
Mr. Bachmann was a nice although long documentary about a teacher and his class. The students in his class were mostly refugees from outside Germany and they sort of all were longing their home country and some of them wanted to move back as soon as they could, but as children they are of course bound to what their parents do. The teacher was so inspiring and very helpful and cool... his students are lucky weather refugees or locals.
But I really, really loved I'm your man and Copilot. I'm your man had so many interesting psychological dilemmas that it raised, and the acting was superb, specially the female lead... I guess she even won the best actress of the whole fest for this role. And my top 1 movie of the 36 movies that I saw during the festival was Copilot. It took it's main character the wife of the only lebanese terrorist, who flew into the twin towers 9/11... The whole story from their meeting and falling in love, mainly following the wife, but also telling the story of the guy... how he went to the flying school in Florida and of counrse the D-day etc... It was all there... Only they changed the names of the characters and the director used some interesting choices.. artistic ones, that made the movie even more valuable. And the letter at the end of the film, that the terrorist left to his wife... darn... By the way, he was the only one of those terrorists, who had a wife and thus considered having a real reason or stronger effect from somebody outside the terrorist organization not to go on this suicide mission. Strong recommendation to see it if it ever gets released in your country!
But I'm happy that they went with I'm your man... It's light and entertaining, but has a deeper meaning and everybody who watches it can relate and think. what would they do if they had this robot at home... and the way we personalize things like cars, computers etc... but is it different when an electic appliance is shaped as a human? And if we had these, how would it effect the world, were more and more people are single anyway.. this leads to even more interesting questions and finding the answers within yourself :)