Germany Picks Sandra Wollner's 'Everytime' for Oscar International Feature Race
Germany has selected Sandra Wollner's Everytime as its entry for the Academy Award for best international feature film at the 99th Oscars, according to Variety. The film, an Austria-Germany co-production running 121 minutes, was chosen from eleven submitted titles, German Films confirmed.
Everytime follows a grieving mother and her late daughter's boyfriend as they navigate questions of guilt, grief, and forgiveness during a family holiday, per TIFF. It is Wollner's third feature film, according to Austrian Films. The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard selection at the 79th Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Prix Un Certain Regard, German Films reported. It is also set to screen in the Centrepiece section at this year's Toronto International Film Festival, German Films noted.
The jury that selected Everytime praised Wollner for making "grief tangible as a world thrown into disarray through purely cinematic means and with a surprising lightness of touch," Variety reported. The citation also highlighted the film's outstanding cinematography, the naturalness of its ensemble cast, and its exploration of "the interstices of the pain of loss," calling it "a truly poetic cinematic experience."
This year's German selection process carried an unusual wrinkle. A change in Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rules last spring meant that two other German films had already secured eligibility for the international feature film category without needing the national committee's nod: Visar Morina's Shame and Money, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and İlker Çatak's Yellow Letters, winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, Variety reported. The rule change allows films that meet certain criteria to enter the Oscar race independently of a country's official submission.
What gives Everytime an edge is its festival pedigree. A Cannes prize, a Toronto berth, and now a national selection give the film a clear runway through the awards corridor. Whether that translates into a nomination is a question for the Academy's voters, not the calendar.
The Oscar timeline is now set. The 15-title shortlist for the international feature film category will be announced on 15 December, the five nominees on 21 January, and the Academy Awards ceremony on 14 March, Variety reported. Between now and then, every submitting country faces the same arithmetic: roughly ninety entries worldwide narrowed to fifteen, then five.
For Germany, the field was unusually deep this year. Three eligible films with major festival laurels — from Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes — is the kind of problem most national selection committees never face.
