Titel Kino 2-2000 - German Films

On the history of the German candidates for the
THE TIN DRUM –
A LONE VICTOR
It could have been a good omen: at the first Oscar ceremony on
16 May 1929, a German was also among the prize-winners: Emil
Jannings was named Best Actor for his roles in Josef von
Sternberg’s The Last Command and Victor Fleming’s
The Way Of All Flesh.
But the ”Academy Award“ remained exclusively the US film
industry’s affair for some while; the Oscar for the best foreign
language film has only existed since 1947. It is probable that this
opening up seemed a bit dubious at first for those responsible:
until the mid-1950s, there weren’t any proposals from other
countries or any nominations; the Oscar was presented, so
to speak, without any advance warning by the board of the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).
The present award procedure has existed since 1956: every
country can name a film, and a committee of the Academy then
nominates five titles from all of the proposals for the final round.
The German productions (see box) have come off rather poorly
since then - and not only in comparison with France or Italy.
The Danes or Dutch have won the Oscar more often than the
Germans.
6
How much sought-after the award has since become can be seen
by the enthusiasm of producers and filmmakers when there is
at least a slight chance of having a whiff of the great prize: a
nomination in itself is regarded as an enormous success. What is
characteristic here is the widely held linguistic vagueness where
the naming of a film by its country of origin is equated with a
”nomination“. The bitterness of the struggle between productions
before one film is selected as the national entry was illustrated
by the controversy over Agnieszka Holland's film Europa
Europa (Hitlerjunge Salomon) which was produced by
Artur Brauner. More about this film later.
The naming of the Oscar candidate from the German productions
is undertaken by the Export-Union of German Cinema. The
basis for this decision are the respective films submitted by the
producers. A committee, which is annually convened by the
Export-Union, selects a candidate from these submissions in a
secret sitting, and this title is then submitted to the Academy.
How far artistic criteria compete with commercial arguments
in the selection procedure or whether it’s mainly strategic
manoeuvring vis-a-vis Hollywood that gain the upper hand
depends on the composition of the respective jury.
Günther Grass, David Bennent, Volker Schlöndorff