23/01/2007

After Downfall [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bernd Eichinger
interview: Joachim Fest
interview: Oliver Hirschbiegel
film profile] in 2004 and Sophie Scholl [+see also:
trailer
film profile] in 2005, The Lives of Others [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Florian Henckel von Donners…
interview: Ulrich Muehe
film profile], a remarkable debut feature from the no less admirable 33 year-old director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (see Focus), will this year be representing Germany in the running for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

This nomination comes as the icing on the cake after the title’s breathtaking festival and box office success. The veritable film phenomenon describes the strange relationship that forms (without one of them knowing it) between an East German playwright (Sebastian Koch) and a Stasi agent, superbly played by Ulrich Mühe.

Starring Martina Gedeck, The Lives of Others has received 11 nominations (including one Golden Globe) and won over 20 awards – including four Bavarian Film Awards and seven German Lolas – at the European Film Awards, Locarno, Warsaw, London and even Los Angeles, where LAFCA critics crowned it Best Foreign Language Film.

The Wiedemann & Berg Filmproduktion GmbH & Co. KG film, co-produced by BR Bayerischer Rundfunk/Munich, ARTE/Strasbourg and Creado Film/Contance, clearly has admirers in the US, where the title (sold by Beta Cinema to more than 30 territories) goes on release through Sony Pictures Classics from February 9 – two weeks before the Oscars ceremony on February 25, at which another European film, After the Wedding [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sisse Graum Jørgensen
interview: Susanne Bier
film profile] by Danish director Susanne Bier, will vie for the same award.

(Translated from French)