Poland Selects Paweł Pawlikowski’s ‘Fatherland’ To Compete In International Film Oscar Race

Fatherland, directed and co-written by Paweł Pawlikowski (Ida), has been selected by the Polish selection committee as its official submission for Best International Feature Film at the Academy Awards.

The well-received Cannes Competition film, which will be released stateside by Mubi, scooped Pawlikowski the Best Director award ex aequo at the French festival.

Written by Pawlikowski and Henk Handloegten, the film stars Oscar-nominated Sandra Hüller (The Zone of Interest), Hanns Zischler (Munich), August Diehl (A Hidden Life), Devid Striesow (All Quiet On The Western Front), and Anna Madeley (Patrick Melrose).

The film “centers on the relationship between the Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler) and his daughter Erika (Sandra Hüller) – actress, writer and rally driver. In the summer of 1949, at the height of the Cold War, father and daughter embark on a challenging and emotional road trip in a black Buick taking them across a Germany in ruins – from US dominated Frankfurt to Soviet controlled Weimar. Returning home after sixteen years of exile in the US, Thomas Mann has to face not only a divided fatherland, but also a deep fracture within his own family.”

Pawlikowski reunites with his longtime filmmaking team, which includes the Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Łukasz Żal, costume designer Aleksandra Staszko, and production designers Katarzyna Sobańska and Marcel Sławiński.

Previously, Pawlikowski’s Ida garnered 70 international awards, including five European Film Awards and Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards. He won the Best Director Prize at Cannes in 2018 for Cold War, with the film going on to receive a further 52 wins and 126 nominations, including nominations for Best Foreign Language Film, Best Director, and Best Cinematography at the 91st Academy Awards.

Fatherland is a Mubi, Our Films, Extreme Emotions (Poland), Nine Hours (Germany), and Chapter 2 (a Mediawan Company, France) production, in collaboration with Circle One (Italy) and Apocalypso Pictures, with the participation of Arte and Pathé. It is produced by 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.