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