The feature film ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT by Edward Berger (Amusement Park Film) will enter the race for Germany for the 95th Oscars® in the category Best International Feature Film. The decision was made by an independent jury whose members were appointed by various associations working within the German film industry. A total of nine films were submitted for consideration.
The nine member jury with the chairwoman Maria Furtwängler (German Film Academy) justifying the choice as follows:
“The jury recognises a radical work with its choice of ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT. It is unsparing in its portrayal of the machinery and dehumanisation of war through the material symbolism of bullet-ridden uniforms, trenches collapsing and shattered bodies. The violence of the events translates into powerful imagery from which there is no escape. The Iron Generation of the 1910s presents itself as the Lost Generation whose individual destinies mercilessly perish in teeming battle scenes. Edward Berger exposes with clarity how those vainglorious decision-makers detached from the real world display an arrogant vanity in sending the young soldiers into battle and sacrificing them without any feelings of conscience. The first German film adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s almost hundred-year-old novel is startlingly topical and makes a powerful statement against war.”
Statement by Director Edward Berger and Producer Malte Grunert:
“Almost one hundred years ago Erich Maria Remarque wrote a book that sadly is more relevant today than we would have ever anticipated. That the jury has now chosen our film to send into the race for the Oscars® is an incredible honour. It’s going to be a long road ahead.”
– Edward Berger, Director
“Our ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT is the first German language adaptation of Remarque’s classic novel. That we are given the opportunity to compete for an Oscar® with our film is a sign of recognition for the amazing work everybody working on the production has done. I am very happy and look forward to showing our film to a wide audience.”
– Malte Grunert, Producer Amusement Park Film
About the film:
ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT is a great German anti-war novel and a classic of world literature from 1928, its authenticity and power drawing upon Erich Maria Remarque’s own experiences in the trenches.
ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT tells the gripping story of a young German soldier on the Western Front of World War I. Paul and his comrades experience first-hand how the initial euphoria of war turns into desperation and fear as they fight for their lives, and each other, in the trenches.
Even years later, the story set in 1918 has lost none of its power and relevance. As the first German-language screen adaptation, the story is told from the German point of view of the war occupying a relevant position in the confrontational tone of the current discourse since no other society has succumbed to its destructive impulses as often as Germany did. There are no heroes in war. No victors, only lost innocence and dashed hopes. The utter futility, the losses suffered in war and the danger posed by the principles of nationalism and separation is a message that the film aims to convey to the world as an anti-war film.
ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT is a production by Amusement Park Film for Netflix. The film will have its world premiere in the section Special Presentations at the Toronto International Film Festival on 12 September, 2022. The European premiere will be held as a gala premiere during the Zurich Film Festival. Netflix will cooperate with distribution partner 24 Bilder for the film’s nationwide theatrical release in Germany on 29 September, 2022. ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT will then open in US cinemas in October and can be seen on Netflix starting October 28, 2022.
About the road to the Oscars®:
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will publish a list of all titles submitted in the Best International Feature Film category in the second week of October 2022. Films were submitted from 93 countries for last year’s Oscars®. On December 21, 2022, the Academy will announce a shortlist of the 15 selected films still in the running for the Oscar® in this category. The five nominated films will then be selected from this shortlist and announced on January 24, 2023.The award ceremony will take place on March 12, 2023.
About the selection of the German entry:
The German entry for the Oscar® in the Best International Feature Film category is decided by a selection committee appointed each year. This committee consists of representatives from eight different trade associations and institutions from the German film industry.
German Films, as the relevant umbrella organization, is responsible for the preparation and execution of the selection process for the German entry to the Oscar® race in the Best International Feature Film category. German Films itself is not represented in the selection committee.
More about the submitted films and the selection committee …