Oscars: Poland Submits Paweł Pawlikowski’s ‘Fatherland,’ Starring Sandra Hüller, for International Feature Race

Poland has selected “Fatherland,” Paweł Pawlikowski’s post-WWII drama starring Sandra Hüller, as its entry for the Oscars international feature race.

The black-and-white film — which follows German novelist Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler) and his daughter Erika (Hüller) on a road trip across Germany in 1949 — world premiered in competition at Cannes Film Festival in May, where Pawlikowski won the best director award.

Written by Pawlikowski and Henk Handloegten, the film also stars August Diehl (“A Hidden Life, Inglourious Basterds”), Devid Striesow (“All Quiet on the Western Front”) and Anna Madeley (“Patrick Melrose,” “All Creatures Great and Small”).

On “Fatherland,” the Polish director reunited with his longtime filmmaking team, including cinematographer Łukasz Żal, costume designer Aleksandra Staszko and production designers Katarzyna Sobańska and Marcel Sławiński. Though the film is set in Germany, the production shot mainly in Poland.

“Fatherland” was produced by Mubi, Our Films (a Mediawan Company, Italy), Extreme Emotions (Poland), Nine Hours (Germany), and Chapter 2 (a Mediawan Company, France). It was made in collaboration with Circle One (Italy) and Apocalypso Pictures, with the participation of Arte and Pathé. Producers include Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Mieli for Our Films, Ewa Puszczyńska for Extreme Emotions, Jeanne Tremsal and Edward Berger for Nine Hours, Dimitri Rassam for Chapter 2 and Lorenzo Gangarossa for Circle One.

Poland’s announcement of its official Oscars selection comes as the international feature race is heating up, with fellow Cannes favorites “Minotaur” and “La Bola Negra” being submitted for France and Spain, respectively. See a running list of all of the international feature race contenders here.