Germany - Best International Feature Film
German submissions for the Oscars for Best International Feature Film (including West/East Germany)
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- DirectorHelmut KäutnerStarsHeinz RühmannMartin HeldHannelore SchrothA young shoemaker is arrested for stealing a small amount of money, and is released after being jailed for 15 years. He wants to have a pass to get a job and start anew, but without a job he doesn't get a pass; and without a pass, he doesn't get a job. He gets into the net of Prussian bureaucracy, and can't see a solution. Until he enters a small Second-Hand Shop, and sees a Prussian Uniform that fits him like a second skin...Nominated
- DirectorRobert SiodmakStarsClaus HolmMario AdorfHannes MessemerA serial killer strikes again during World War II in Germany. The wrong man is arrested and a detective hunts down the real killer, but justice in Nazi Germany is not so easily administered.Nominated
- DirectorFranz Peter WirthStarsO.W. FischerLiselotte PulverEllen SchwiersIn 1865, Swiss captain Bluntschli fights as a mercenary in the war between Bulgaria and Serbia. When his group is attacked by a few Bulgarian troopers, he learns that he's got the wrong ammunition for his cannon and should flee. His flight leads him right into the bedroom of his enemy's fiancée.Nominated
- DirectorBernhard WickiStarsVolker BohnetFritz WepperMichael HinzIn 1945, Germany is being overrun, and nobody is left to fight but teenagers.Nominated
- DirectorPeter GorskiGustaf GründgensStarsWill QuadfliegGustaf GründgensElla BüchiThe aging scientist Faust is desperately in search of knowledge and insight, but without success. To escape from this ignorance, he dares the extreme: He joins forces with The Devil. Mephisto offers him eternal youth and the opportunity to seduce the virgin Gretchen.
- DirectorVolker SchlöndorffStarsMathieu CarrièreMarian SeidowskyBernd TischerIn a boarding school, a student observes in passive disgust as his two friends manipulate, humiliate and torture a fellow student, justifying their every act.
- DirectorJohannes SchaafStarsHelga AndersChristof WackernagelRosemarie FendelCapturing the zeitgeist of discontent and rebellion, the movie anticipates the protests of 1968.
- DirectorAlexander KlugeStarsHannelore HogerSigi GraueAlfred Edel"Neues Kino movie" about life in the circus dome narrated in Brechtian spirit; deceptively illusionist grip is broken violently by aloofness and sweeping subjective tracking shots.
- DirectorPeter FleischmannStarsMartin SperrAngela WinklerElse QueckeAbram returns to his small village and although his repairing skills are needed, people's suspicion about his sexual preferences make his life hard.
- DirectorMichael VerhoevenStarsGustl BayrhammerHartmut BeckerRolf CastellA four-man US fire-team on patrol seizes a dying young Vietnamese girl and continue to torture, rape and kill her. One soldier refuses to take part and reports the incident.
- DirectorRudolf NoelteStarsMaximilian SchellCordula TrantowTrudik DanielA man comes to a small village to begin his new job as an attendant at the nearby castle. But everybody in the village claims that he surely must be mistaken, there is no need for an attendant at the castle.
- DirectorJohannes SchaafStarsAndrás BálintRosemarie FendelDoris KunstmannAfter his imprisonment during the Great War, a young soldier returns to Vienna only to realize that everything has changed.
- DirectorMaximilian SchellStarsGustav Rudolf SellnerPeter HallMaximilian SchellWhen a German businessman causes a car accident with deadly consequences, the papers start digging into his past to find scandals. What they find causes him to reevaluate his own past during WW2 when he was in Greece.Nominated
- DirectorWolfgang PetersenStarsKlaus SchwarzkopfElke SommerJürgen ProchnowWhat started as a simple blackmail, quickly devolves into a downward spiral of psychological and physical violence.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsBruno S.Walter LadengastBrigitte MiraA young man named Kaspar Hauser suddenly appears in Nuremberg in 1828, barely able to talk or walk, and bearing a strange note.
- DirectorVojtech JasnýStarsHelmut GriemHanna SchygullaEva Maria MeinekeHans Schnier has earned his living as a clown, though he is in fact a very covert sort of social critic. After enduring a difficult childhood in Bonn during the Second World War, including his mother's fanatic Nazism.
- DirectorWim WendersStarsDennis HopperBruno GanzLisa KreuzerTom Ripley, who deals in forged art, suggests a picture framer he knows would make a good hit man.
- DirectorHans W. GeissendörferStarsBrigitte FosseyHelmut GriemDieter LaserA man is wrongfully imprisoned for five years. Once out, he hears about his wife's supposed adventures outside of their marriage and becomes increasingly jealous.Nominated
- DirectorVolker SchlöndorffStarsDavid BennentMario AdorfAngela WinklerIn 1924, Oskar Matzerath is born in the Free City of Danzig. At age three, he falls down a flight of stairs and stops growing. In 1939, World War II breaks out.Winner
- DirectorWolf GremmStarsHans Peter HallwachsHermann LauseSilvia JanischNovel-based story of Jacob Fabian, a somewhat liberal Berlin advertising copywriter who witnesses the collapse of the prewar German society during the 1930s.
- DirectorRainer Werner FassbinderStarsHanna SchygullaGiancarlo GianniniMel FerrerIn 1938, a German singer falls in love with a Jewish composer in Zurich, who helps Jews flee Nazi Germany. She wants to help but is forced back to Germany. Her song "Lili Marleen" becomes a hit with soldiers and the Nazi top brass.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsKlaus KinskiClaudia CardinaleJosé LewgoyThe story of Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, an extremely determined man who intends to build an opera house in the middle of a jungle.
- DirectorRobert van AckerenStarsGudrun LandgrebeMathieu CarrièreHanns ZischlerEva, an upper-class housewife, frustratingly leaves her arrogant husband and decides to enter the call girl business. She lets Yvonne, a prostitute, teach her the basics and both set out for prey together, until Eva starts an affair with Chris, who turns out to be a call boy, as well. Consequently, she moves into his penthouse, large enough for both to offer their services separately.
- DirectorNorbert KückelmannStarsMaximilian SchellLena StolzeRobert AldiniAfter assaulting a minister, a young defendant claims to have acted entirely by himself. His lawyer doesn't believe him and starts investigations of his own.
- DirectorAgnieszka HollandStarsArmin Mueller-StahlElisabeth TrissenaarWojciech PszoniakIn the winter of 1942-43, a Jewish family leaps from a train going through Silesia. They are separated in the woods, and Leon, a local peasant who's now a farmer of some wealth, discovers the woman, Rosa, and hides her in his cellar. Leon's a middle-aged Catholic bachelor, tormented by his sexual drive. He doesn't tell Rosa he's seen signs her husband is alive, and he begs her to love him. Rosa offers herself to Leon if he'll help a local Jew in hiding who needs money. Leon pays, and love between Rosa and him does develop, but then Leon's peasant subservience and his limited empathy lead to tragedy. At the war's end, a ray of sunshine comes from an unexpected place.Nominated
- DirectorDoris DörrieStarsHeiner LauterbachUwe OchsenknechtUlrike KrienerA man's wife leaves him to take up with an artist, so the man responds by becoming the artist's roommate.
- DirectorWim WendersStarsBruno GanzSolveig DommartinOtto SanderAn angel tires of his purely ethereal life of merely overseeing the human activity of Berlin's residents, and longs for the tangible joys of physical existence when he falls in love with a mortal.
- DirectorHark BohmStarsAyse RomeyUwe BohmSener Sen20-year-old Casanova Jan falls in love with 17-year-old Turkish girl Yasemin, who lives in Germany with her family. She's well-protected by her father, who believes in the Turkish traditions. She must struggle for every little freedom that her German friends might take for granted, but she still respects and loves her father and keeps the appearance of an honorable Turkish girl, but her love for Jan disturbs this fine balance. So it's not hate or quarrel that interferes with their love, but the differences of their cultures.
- DirectorBernhard WickiStarsUlrich MüheKlaus Maria BrandauerArmin Mueller-StahlUlrich Mühe plays a German businessman who was born completely without scruples. This makes him an eminently suitable candidate for success in the chaotic years after World War I. The shameless man's story is contrasted with that of his polar opposite, a Jewish anarchist.
- DirectorEgon GüntherStarsJutta HoffmannBarbara DittusRolf LudwigA disillusioned single mother decides to give love one last chance.
- DirectorFrank BeyerStarsVlastimil BrodskýErwin GeschonneckHenry HübchenA Jewish ghetto in central Europe, 1944. By coincidence, Jakob Heym eavesdrops on a German radio broadcast announcing the Soviet Army is making slow by steady progress towards central Europe. In order to keep his companion in misfortune, Mischa, from risking his life for a few potatoes, he tells him what he heard and announces that he is in possession of a radio - in the ghetto a crime punishable by death. It doesn't take long for word of Jakob's secret to spread - suddenly, there is new hope and something to live for - and so Jakob finds himself in the uncomforting position of having to come up with more and more stories.Nominated
- DirectorKonrad WolfStarsPeter PragerUwe ZerbeEberhard KirchbergFour young Germans in a Soviet POW camp decide to join the Red Army to hasten the end of the war. Their new identities elicit different reactions from Germans and Russians, and are difficult to live up to when they are sent behind German lines.
- DirectorGünter ReischGünther RückerStarsJutta WachowiakRegimantas AdomaitisSlávka BudínováThe wrenching story of a woman sentenced in 1934 to 10 years in prison for antifascist activities. The love between her and her fiancé enables her to survive the tribulations of her time in prison, where she is one of few political prisoners.
- DirectorFrank BeyerStarsSylvester GrothFred DürenMatthias GüntherTeenage German soldier is falsely accused of being a war criminal and arrested in Poland of 1945.
- DirectorMichael VerhoevenStarsLena StolzeHans-Reinhard MüllerMonika BaumgartnerWhen a young woman investigates her town's Nazi past, the community turns against her.Nominated
- DirectorHelmut DietlStarsGötz GeorgeUwe OchsenknechtChristiane HörbigerThe slightly fictionalized story of an art forger, a journalist desperate for a big story, and the biggest press scandal in German history: the Hitler Diaries.Nominated
- DirectorHans W. GeissendörferStarsMaximilian SchellThomas HeinzeAnna ThalbachSenator Isaak Kohler shoots and kills Professor Winter in a crowded restaurant, while Winter is dining with the struggling idealistic young lawyer, Felix Spat. Kohler puts up no defense and is sentenced to twenty years. Kohler then gets his daughter Helene to pay the reluctant Spat to reinvestigate the case, on the assumption that Kohler is innocent. The newspapers pick up on this and begin to question whether Kohler was wrongly convicted.
- DirectorMargarethe von TrottaStarsCorinna HarfouchMeret BeckerAugust ZirnerEast-Berlin, 1961, shortly after the erection of the Wall. Konrad, Sophie and three of their friends plan a daring escape to Western Germany. The attempt is successful, except for Konrad, who remains behind. From then on, and for the next 28 years, Konrad and Sophie will attempt to meet again, in spite of the Iron Curtain. Konrad, who has become a reputed Astrophysicist, tries to take advantage of scientific congresses outside Eastern Germany to arrange encounters with Sophie. But in a country where the political police, the Stasi, monitors the moves of all suspicious people (such as Konrad's sister Barbara and her husband Harald), preserving one's privacy, ideals and self-respect becomes an exhausting fight, even as the Eastern block begins its long process of disintegration.
- DirectorJoseph VilsmaierStarsAndré EisermannDana VávrováBen BeckerIn the beginning of the 19th century, Johannes Elias Alder is born in a small village in the Austrian mountains. While growing up he is considered strange by the other villagers and discovers his love of music, especially rebuilding and playing the organ at the village church. After experiencing an "acoustic wonder", his eye color changes and he can hear even the most subtle sounds. Elias falls in platonic love with Elsbeth, the sister of Peter, a neighbor's son, who has longstanding homosexual feelings towards Elias. After Elsbeth, out of frustration from Elias' not returning her love and instead being obsessed with music, chooses to be impregnated and marries someone else who lose love she had spurned for Elias. The village burns and most villagers, including Elsbeth, evacuate to the closest town. Elias remains behind. A music master with the official task to register all the organs in the country arrives at the burnt village. There he discovers Elias' prodigy and invites him to an organ challenge in the town where the villagers relocated. Elias performs there and amazes the audience which includes Elsbeth. She is unable to meet with Elias before he is rushed to a waiting carriage. She calls to him and he hears her, but it is too late. Elias is taken on a brief tour by his mentors but soon returns to his spiritual site near the burnt village where he takes his own life (with Peter by his side), having decided to not sleep anymore. Elsbeth later returns there, a widow with a young daughter, hoping to find Elias but instead discovers his spiritual site has disappeared.
- DirectorRomuald KarmakarStarsGötz GeorgeJürgen HentschPierre FranckhFritz Haarmann, who has killed at least 27 boys, is questioned by a psychology professor in order to find out whether he is sane and can be held responsible for his crimes. During this interrogation Haarmann reveals his motives and his killing methods.
- DirectorCaroline LinkStarsSylvie TestudTatjana TriebHowie SeagoSince the earliest days in her childhood Lara has had a difficult but important task. Both her parents are deaf-mute and Lara has to translate from sign-language to the spoken word and vice versa when her parents want to communicate with other people. Getting older and more mature she becomes interested in music and starts to play clarinet very successfully. However her parents are deaf, they cannot share Lara's musical career. The day comes when Lara has to decide between her parents and her own ambitions.Nominated
- DirectorTom TykwerStarsFranka PotenteMoritz BleibtreuHerbert KnaupAfter a botched money delivery, Lola has 20 minutes to come up with 100,000 Deutschmarks.
- DirectorMax FärberböckStarsMaria SchraderJuliane KöhlerJohanna WokalekIn 1943 Berlin, a Nazi officer's wife meets and starts a passionate affair with a Jewish woman.
- DirectorOskar RoehlerStarsHannelore ElsnerVadim GlownaTonio ArangoFlanders, a famous female author, travels 1989 after the fall of the Berlin wall into the German capital. She is deeply depressed of the events because she saw the communistic states as a very good thing that has now ended. In the joy of these days she finds no person to understand her, so she has to travel back to Munich. After meeting several people, known and unknown, it seems as if there will be no way to go.
- DirectorOliver HirschbiegelStarsMoritz BleibtreuChristian BerkelOliver StokowskiFor two weeks, 20 male participants are hired to play prisoners and guards in a prison. The "prisoners" have to follow seemingly mild rules, and the "guards" are told to retain order without using physical violence.
- DirectorCaroline LinkStarsJuliane KöhlerMerab NinidzeMatthias HabichDue to Hitler's threat, Walter Redlich, a Jewish lawyer, immigrates to Kenya with his wife Jettel and daughter Regina. Things take a turn when the family is ordered to move by the British officers.Winner
- DirectorWolfgang BeckerStarsDaniel BrühlKatrin SassChulpan KhamatovaIn 1990, to protect his fragile mother from a fatal shock after a long coma, a young man must keep her from learning that her beloved nation of East Germany as she knew it has disappeared.
- DirectorOliver HirschbiegelStarsBruno GanzAlexandra Maria LaraUlrich MatthesTraudl Junge, the final secretary for Adolf Hitler, tells of the Nazi dictator's final days in his Berlin bunker at the end of WWII.Nominated
- DirectorMarc RothemundStarsJulia JentschFabian HinrichsAlexander HeldA dramatization of the final days of Sophie Scholl, one of the most famous members of the German World War II anti-Nazi resistance movement, The White Rose.Nominated
- DirectorFlorian Henckel von DonnersmarckStarsUlrich MüheMartina GedeckSebastian KochIn 1984 East Berlin, an agent of the secret police conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives.Winner
- DirectorFatih AkinStarsBaki DavrakGürsoy GemecCengiz DanerA Turkish man travels to Istanbul to find the daughter of his father's former girlfriend.
- DirectorUli EdelStarsMartina GedeckMoritz BleibtreuJohanna WokalekA look at Germany's terrorist group, The Red Army Faction (RAF), which organized bombings, robberies, kidnappings, and assassinations in the late 1960s and '70s.Nominated
- DirectorMichael HanekeStarsChristian FriedelErnst JacobiLeonie BeneschStrange events happen in a small village in the north of Germany during the years before World War I, which seem to be ritual punishment. Who is responsible?Nominated
- DirectorFeo AladagStarsSibel KekilliNizam SchillerDerya AlaboraUmay is a young woman of Turkish descent, fighting for an independent and self-determined life in Germany against her family's resistance. Her struggle initiates a dynamic that results in a life-threatening situation.
- DirectorWim WendersStarsPina BauschRegina AdventoMalou AiraudoA tribute to the late German choreographer Pina Bausch, as her dancers perform her most famous creations.January Shortlist
- DirectorChristian PetzoldStarsNina HossRonald ZehrfeldRainer BockA doctor working in 1980s East Germany finds herself banished to a small country hospital.
- DirectorGeorg MaasJudith KaufmannStarsJuliane KöhlerLiv UllmannSven NordinAs the Berlin Wall crumbles, Katrine, the daughter of a Norwegian woman and a German occupation soldier, finds her idyllic life disrupted as she refuses to testify a trial against the Norwegian state on behalf of her fellow "war children."January Shortlist
- DirectorDominik GrafStarsHannah HerzsprungFlorian StetterHenriette ConfuriusThe 18th century literary genius Friedrich Schiller falls in love with the sisters Charlotte and Caroline von Lengefeld. After a passionate summer together in a menage a trois, jealousy and rivalry endanger their union.
- DirectorGiulio RicciarelliStarsAndré SzymanskiAlexander FehlingFriederike BechtA story that exposes the conspiracy of prominent German institutions and government branches to cover up the crimes of Nazis during World War II.December Shortlist
- DirectorMaren AdeStarsSandra HüllerPeter SimonischekMichael WittenbornA practical joking father tries to reconnect with his hard working daughter by creating an outrageous alter ego and posing as her CEO's life coach.Nominated
- DirectorFatih AkinStarsNuman AcarAdam BousdoukosDiane KrugerKatja's life collapses after the deaths of her husband and son in a bomb attack. After a time of mourning and injustice, Katja seeks revenge.December Shortlist
- DirectorFlorian Henckel von DonnersmarckStarsTom SchillingSebastian KochPaula BeerGerman artist Kurt Barnert has escaped East Germany and now lives in West Germany, but is tormented by his childhood under the Nazis and the GDR-regime.Nominated
- DirectorNora FingscheidtStarsHelena ZengelAlbrecht SchuchGabriela Maria Schmeide9-year-old Benni is a toss-up between institutions that cannot tackle her outbursts. She wants to move in with her mother, but she can not handle her wild daughter. After Micha is hired Benni slowly opens up and attaches herself to him.
- DirectorJulia von HeinzStarsMala EmdeNoah SaavedraTonio SchneiderHow far one is willing to go for the sake of one's political commitment.
- DirectorMaria SchraderStarsMaren EggertDan StevensSandra HüllerIn order to obtain research funds for her studies, a scientist accepts an offer to participate in an extraordinary experiment: for three weeks, she is to live with a humanoid robot, created to make her happy.Shortlist
- DirectorEdward BergerStarsFelix KammererAlbrecht SchuchAaron HilmerA young German soldier's terrifying experiences and distress on the western front during World War I.Winner
- DirectorIlker ÇatakStarsLeonie BeneschAnne-Kathrin GummichRafael StachowiakWhen one of her students is suspected of theft, teacher Carla Nowak decides to get to the bottom of the matter. Caught between her ideals and the school system, the consequences of her actions threaten to break her.Nominated