German Submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film
by tmdaines | created - 19 Jan 2013 | updated - 2 months ago | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. The Captain from Köpenick (1956)
93 min | Comedy, Drama
A young shoemaker is arrested for stealing a small amount of money, and is released after being jailed for 15 years. He wants to have a pass to get a job and start anew, but without a job ... See full summary »
Director: Helmut Käutner | Stars: Heinz Rühmann, Martin Held, Hannelore Schroth, Willy A. Kleinau
Votes: 1,906
1956 (Nominated)
2. The Devil Strikes at Night (1957)
97 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A serial killer strikes again during World War II in Germany. The wrong man is arrested and a detective hunts down the real killer, but justice in Nazi Germany is not so easily administered.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Claus Holm, Mario Adorf, Hannes Messemer, Peter Carsten
Votes: 1,580
1957 (Nominated)
3. Arms and the Man (1958)
96 min | Comedy, Romance
In 1865, Swiss captain Bluntschli fights as a mercenary in the war between Bulgaria and Serbia. When his group is attacked by a few Bulgarian troopers, he learns that he's got the wrong ... See full summary »
Director: Franz Peter Wirth | Stars: O.W. Fischer, Liselotte Pulver, Ellen Schwiers, Jan Hendriks
Votes: 200
1958 (Nominated)
4. The Bridge (1959)
Not Rated | 103 min | Drama, History, War
In 1945, Germany is being overrun, and nobody is left to fight but teenagers.
Director: Bernhard Wicki | Stars: Volker Bohnet, Fritz Wepper, Michael Hinz, Frank Glaubrecht
Votes: 8,643
1959 (Nominated)
5. Faust (1960)
128 min | Drama, Fantasy
The aging scientist Faust is desperately in search of knowledge and insight, but without success. To escape from this ignorance, he dares the extreme: He joins forces with The Devil. ... See full summary »
Directors: Peter Gorski, Gustaf Gründgens | Stars: Will Quadflieg, Gustaf Gründgens, Ella Büchi, Elisabeth Flickenschildt
Votes: 684
1960
6. The Miracle of Father Malachia (1961)
122 min | Comedy
A monk is struggling with the consequences of a miracle that he prayed for.
Director: Bernhard Wicki | Stars: Horst Bollmann, Richard Münch, Christiane Nielsen, Günter Pfitzmann
Votes: 86
1961
7. Es (1966)
86 min | Drama
About a young couple and their marriage crisis resulting from a concealed pregnancy and abortion.
Director: Ulrich Schamoni | Stars: Sabine Sinjen, Bruno Dietrich, Horst Manfred Adloff, Bernhard Minetti
Votes: 121
1965
8. Young Törless (1966)
Not Rated | 87 min | Drama
In a boarding school, a student observes in passive disgust as his two friends manipulate, humiliate and torture a fellow student, justifying their every act.
Director: Volker Schlöndorff | Stars: Mathieu Carrière, Marian Seidowsky, Bernd Tischer, Fred Dietz
Votes: 2,665
1966
9. Tätowierung (1967)
86 min | Crime, Drama
Capturing the zeitgeist of discontent and rebellion, the movie anticipates the protests of 1968.
Director: Johannes Schaaf | Stars: Helga Anders, Christof Wackernagel, Rosemarie Fendel, Tilo von Berlepsch
Votes: 109
1967
10. Artists Under the Big Top: Perplexed (1968)
103 min | Drama
"Neues Kino movie" about life in the circus dome narrated in Brechtian spirit; deceptively illusionist grip is broken violently by aloofness and sweeping subjective tracking shots.
Director: Alexander Kluge | Stars: Hannelore Hoger, Sigi Graue, Alfred Edel, Bernd Höltz
Votes: 462
1968
11. Hunting Scenes from Bavaria (1969)
88 min | Drama, Horror
Abram returns to his small village and although his repairing skills are needed, people's suspicion about his sexual preferences make his life hard.
Director: Peter Fleischmann | Stars: Martin Sperr, Angela Winkler, Else Quecke, Michael Strixner
Votes: 752
1969
12. O.K. (1970)
80 min | Drama, War
A four-man US fire-team on patrol seizes a dying young Vietnamese girl and continue to torture, rape and kill her. One soldier refuses to take part and reports the incident.
Director: Michael Verhoeven | Stars: Gustl Bayrhammer, Hartmut Becker, Rolf Castell, Wolfgang Fischer
Votes: 204
1970
13. The Castle (1968)
93 min | Drama, Mystery
A man comes to a small village to begin his new job as an attendant at the nearby castle. But everybody in the village claims that he surely must be mistaken, there is no need for an attendant at the castle.
Director: Rudolf Noelte | Stars: Maximilian Schell, Cordula Trantow, Trudik Daniel, Friedrich Maurer
Votes: 282
1971
14. Trotta (1971)
95 min | Drama
After his imprisonment during the Great War, a young soldier returns to Vienna only to realize that everything has changed.
Director: Johannes Schaaf | Stars: András Bálint, Rosemarie Fendel, Doris Kunstmann, Elma Bulla
Votes: 192
1972
15. The Pedestrian (1973)
PG | 98 min | Drama
When a German businessman causes a car accident with deadly consequences, the papers start digging into his past to find scandals. What they find causes him to reevaluate his own past during WW2 when he was in Greece.
Director: Maximilian Schell | Stars: Gustav Rudolf Sellner, Peter Hall, Maximilian Schell, Gila von Weitershausen
Votes: 286
1973 (Nominated)
16. One or the Other (1974)
105 min | Action, Romance, Thriller
What started as a simple blackmail, quickly devolves into a downward spiral of psychological and physical violence.
Director: Wolfgang Petersen | Stars: Klaus Schwarzkopf, Elke Sommer, Jürgen Prochnow, Ulla Jacobsson
Votes: 284
1974
17. The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)
Not Rated | 110 min | Biography, Drama, History
A young man named Kaspar Hauser suddenly appears in Nuremberg in 1828, barely able to talk or walk, and bearing a strange note.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Bruno S., Walter Ladengast, Brigitte Mira, Willy Semmelrogge
Votes: 18,893
1975
18. The Clown (1976)
111 min | Drama
Hans Schnier has earned his living as a clown, though he is in fact a very covert sort of social critic. After enduring a difficult childhood in Bonn during the Second World War, including his mother's fanatic Nazism.
Director: Vojtech Jasný | Stars: Helmut Griem, Hanna Schygulla, Eva Maria Meineke, Hans Christian Blech
Votes: 158
1976
19. The American Friend (1977)
Not Rated | 128 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Tom Ripley, who deals in forged art, suggests a picture framer he knows would make a good hit man.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Dennis Hopper, Bruno Ganz, Lisa Kreuzer, Gérard Blain
Votes: 18,533
1977
20. The Glass Cell (1978)
93 min | Crime, Drama
A man is wrongfully imprisoned for five years. Once out, he hears about his wife's supposed adventures outside of their marriage and becomes increasingly jealous.
Director: Hans W. Geissendörfer | Stars: Brigitte Fossey, Helmut Griem, Dieter Laser, Walter Kohut
Votes: 280
1978 (Nominated)
21. The Tin Drum (1979)
R | 142 min | Drama, War
In 1924, Oskar Matzerath is born in the Free City of Danzig. At age three, he falls down a flight of stairs and stops growing. In 1939, World War II breaks out.
Director: Volker Schlöndorff | Stars: David Bennent, Mario Adorf, Angela Winkler, Katharina Thalbach
Votes: 25,740
1979 (Won)
22. Fabian (1980)
R | 110 min | Drama
Novel-based story of Jacob Fabian, a somewhat liberal Berlin advertising copywriter who witnesses the collapse of the prewar German society during the 1930s.
Director: Wolf Gremm | Stars: Hans Peter Hallwachs, Hermann Lause, Silvia Janisch, Mijanou Van Baarzel
Votes: 154
1980
23. Lili Marleen (1981)
R | 120 min | Drama, Music, Romance
In 1938, a German singer falls in love with a Jewish composer in Zurich, who helps Jews flee Nazi Germany. She wants to help but is forced back to Germany. Her song "Lili Marleen" becomes a hit with soldiers and the Nazi top brass.
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Stars: Hanna Schygulla, Giancarlo Giannini, Mel Ferrer, Karl-Heinz von Hassel
Votes: 4,287
1981
24. Fitzcarraldo (1982)
PG | 158 min | Adventure, Drama
The story of Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, an extremely determined man who intends to build an opera house in the middle of a jungle.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Klaus Kinski, Claudia Cardinale, José Lewgoy, Miguel Ángel Fuentes
Votes: 38,552
1982
25. A Woman in Flames (1983)
Not Rated | 106 min | Drama
Eva, an upper-class housewife, frustratingly leaves her arrogant husband and decides to enter the call girl business. She lets Yvonne, a prostitute, teach her the basics and both set out ... See full summary »
Director: Robert van Ackeren | Stars: Gudrun Landgrebe, Mathieu Carrière, Hanns Zischler, Gabriele Lafari
Votes: 639
1983
26. Morgen in Alabama (1984)
126 min | Thriller
After assaulting a minister, a young defendant claims to have acted entirely by himself. His lawyer doesn't believe him and starts investigations of his own.
Director: Norbert Kückelmann | Stars: Maximilian Schell, Lena Stolze, Robert Aldini, Wolfgang Kieling
Votes: 70
1984
27. Angry Harvest (1985)
R | 105 min | Drama, Romance, War
In the winter of 1942-43, a Jewish family leaps from a train going through Silesia. They are separated in the woods, and Leon, a local peasant who's now a farmer of some wealth, discovers ... See full summary »
Director: Agnieszka Holland | Stars: Armin Mueller-Stahl, Elisabeth Trissenaar, Wojciech Pszoniak, Gerd Baltus
Votes: 867
1985 (Nominated)
28. Men... (1985)
99 min | Comedy, Romance
A man's wife leaves him to take up with an artist, so the man responds by becoming the artist's roommate.
Director: Doris Dörrie | Stars: Heiner Lauterbach, Uwe Ochsenknecht, Ulrike Kriener, Janna Marangosoff
Votes: 1,346
1986
29. Wings of Desire (1987)
PG-13 | 128 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
An angel tires of his purely ethereal life of merely overseeing the human activity of Berlin's residents, and longs for the tangible joys of physical existence when he falls in love with a mortal.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander, Curt Bois
Votes: 76,934 | Gross: $3.33M
1987
30. Yasemin (1988)
85 min | Drama, Romance
20-year-old Casanova Jan falls in love with 17-year-old Turkish girl Yasemin, who lives in Germany with her family. She's well-protected by her father, who believes in the Turkish ... See full summary »
Director: Hark Bohm | Stars: Ayse Romey, Uwe Bohm, Sener Sen, Ilhan Emirli
Votes: 283
1988
31. Spider's Web (1989)
196 min | Drama
Ulrich Mühe plays a German businessman who was born completely without scruples. This makes him an eminently suitable candidate for success in the chaotic years after World War I. The ... See full summary »
Director: Bernhard Wicki | Stars: Ulrich Mühe, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Andrea Jonasson
Votes: 244
1989
32. The Nasty Girl (1990)
PG-13 | 92 min | Comedy, Drama, History
When a young woman investigates her town's Nazi past, the community turns against her.
Director: Michael Verhoeven | Stars: Lena Stolze, Hans-Reinhard Müller, Monika Baumgartner, Elisabeth Bertram
Votes: 2,755 | Gross: $2.28M
1990 (Nominated)
33. Schtonk (1992)
115 min | Comedy, Crime
The slightly fictionalized story of an art forger, a journalist desperate for a big story, and the biggest press scandal in German history: the Hitler Diaries.
Director: Helmut Dietl | Stars: Götz George, Uwe Ochsenknecht, Christiane Hörbiger, Dagmar Manzel
Votes: 4,027
1992 (Nominated)
34. Justiz (1993)
106 min | Drama
Senator Isaak Kohler shoots and kills Professor Winter in a crowded restaurant, while Winter is dining with the struggling idealistic young lawyer, Felix Spat. Kohler puts up no defense and... See full summary »
Director: Hans W. Geissendörfer | Stars: Maximilian Schell, Thomas Heinze, Anna Thalbach, Mathias Gnädinger
Votes: 227
1993
35. Das Versprechen (1994)
R | 115 min | Drama, Romance
East-Berlin, 1961, shortly after the erection of the Wall. Konrad, Sophie and three of their friends plan a daring escape to Western Germany. The attempt is successful, except for Konrad, ... See full summary »
Director: Margarethe von Trotta | Stars: Corinna Harfouch, Meret Becker, August Zirner, Anian Zollner
Votes: 858 | Gross: $0.09M
1994
36. Brother of Sleep (1995)
R | 127 min | Drama, Music, Romance
In the beginning of the 19th century, Johannes Elias Alder is born in a small village in the Austrian mountains. While growing up he is considered strange by the other villagers and ... See full summary »
Director: Joseph Vilsmaier | Stars: André Eisermann, Dana Vávrová, Ben Becker, Jochen Nickel
Votes: 1,678
1995
37. Der Totmacher (1995)
110 min | Crime, Drama
Fritz Haarmann, who has killed at least 27 boys, is questioned by a psychology professor in order to find out whether he is sane and can be held responsible for his crimes. During this ... See full summary »
Director: Romuald Karmakar | Stars: Götz George, Jürgen Hentsch, Pierre Franckh, Hans-Michael Rehberg
Votes: 2,348
1996
38. Beyond Silence (1996)
PG-13 | 109 min | Drama, Music
Since the earliest days in her childhood Lara has had a difficult but important task. Both her parents are deaf-mute and Lara has to translate from sign-language to the spoken word and vice... See full summary »
Director: Caroline Link | Stars: Sylvie Testud, Tatjana Trieb, Howie Seago, Emmanuelle Laborit
Votes: 4,585 | Gross: $0.17M
1997 (Nominated)
39. Run Lola Run (1998)
R | 80 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
After a botched money delivery, Lola has 20 minutes to come up with 100,000 Deutschmarks.
Director: Tom Tykwer | Stars: Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu, Herbert Knaup, Nina Petri
Votes: 206,917 | Gross: $7.27M
1998
40. Aimee & Jaguar (1999)
Not Rated | 125 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
In 1943 Berlin, a Nazi officer's wife meets and starts a passionate affair with a Jewish woman.
Director: Max Färberböck | Stars: Maria Schrader, Juliane Köhler, Johanna Wokalek, Heike Makatsch
Votes: 6,993 | Gross: $0.93M
1999
41. Die Unberührbare (2000)
110 min | Drama
Flanders, a famous female author, travels 1989 after the fall of the Berlin wall into the German capital. She is deeply depressed of the events because she saw the communistic states as a ... See full summary »
Director: Oskar Roehler | Stars: Hannelore Elsner, Vadim Glowna, Tonio Arango, Michael Gwisdek
Votes: 887
2000
42. The Experiment (2001)
R | 120 min | Drama, Thriller
For two weeks, 20 male participants are hired to play prisoners and guards in a prison. The "prisoners" have to follow seemingly mild rules, and the "guards" are told to retain order without using physical violence.
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel | Stars: Moritz Bleibtreu, Christian Berkel, Oliver Stokowski, Wotan Wilke Möhring
Votes: 96,086 | Gross: $0.14M
2001
43. Nowhere in Africa (2001)
R | 141 min | Biography, Drama, History
Due to Hitler's threat, Walter Redlich, a Jewish lawyer, immigrates to Kenya with his wife Jettel and daughter Regina. Things take a turn when the family is ordered to move by the British officers.
Director: Caroline Link | Stars: Juliane Köhler, Merab Ninidze, Matthias Habich, Sidede Onyulo
Votes: 13,954 | Gross: $6.17M
2002 (Won)
44. Good Bye Lenin! (2003)
R | 121 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
In 1990, to protect his fragile mother from a fatal shock after a long coma, a young man must keep her from learning that her beloved nation of East Germany as she knew it has disappeared.
Director: Wolfgang Becker | Stars: Daniel Brühl, Katrin Sass, Chulpan Khamatova, Florian Lukas
Votes: 152,600 | Gross: $4.06M
2003
45. Downfall (2004)
R | 156 min | Biography, Drama, History
Traudl Junge, the final secretary for Adolf Hitler, tells of the Nazi dictator's final days in his Berlin bunker at the end of WWII.
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel | Stars: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Ulrich Matthes, Juliane Köhler
Votes: 375,042 | Gross: $5.51M
2004 (Nominated)
46. Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (2005)
Not Rated | 120 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A dramatization of the final days of Sophie Scholl, one of the most famous members of the German World War II anti-Nazi resistance movement, The White Rose.
Director: Marc Rothemund | Stars: Julia Jentsch, Fabian Hinrichs, Alexander Held, Johanna Gastdorf
Votes: 28,659 | Gross: $0.68M
2005 (Nominated)
47. The Lives of Others (2006)
R | 137 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
In 1984 East Berlin, an agent of the secret police conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives.
Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck | Stars: Ulrich Mühe, Martina Gedeck, Sebastian Koch, Ulrich Tukur
Votes: 410,273 | Gross: $11.29M
2006 (Won)
48. The Edge of Heaven (2007)
Not Rated | 122 min | Drama
A Turkish man travels to Istanbul to find the daughter of his father's former girlfriend.
Director: Fatih Akin | Stars: Baki Davrak, Gürsoy Gemec, Cengiz Daner, Tuncel Kurtiz
Votes: 33,511 | Gross: $0.74M
2007
49. The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008)
R | 150 min | Action, Biography, Crime
A look at Germany's terrorist group, The Red Army Faction (RAF), which organized bombings, robberies, kidnappings, and assassinations in the late 1960s and '70s.
Director: Uli Edel | Stars: Martina Gedeck, Moritz Bleibtreu, Johanna Wokalek, Bruno Ganz
Votes: 40,109 | Gross: $0.48M
2008 (Nominated)
50. The White Ribbon (2009)
R | 144 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Strange events happen in a small village in the north of Germany during the years before World War I, which seem to be ritual punishment. Who is responsible?
Director: Michael Haneke | Stars: Christian Friedel, Ernst Jacobi, Leonie Benesch, Ulrich Tukur
Votes: 77,605 | Gross: $2.22M
2009 (Nominated)
51. When We Leave (2010)
Unrated | 119 min | Drama
Umay is a young woman of Turkish descent, fighting for an independent and self-determined life in Germany against her family's resistance. Her struggle initiates a dynamic that results in a life-threatening situation.
Director: Feo Aladag | Stars: Sibel Kekilli, Nizam Schiller, Derya Alabora, Settar Tanriögen
Votes: 5,562 | Gross: $0.02M
2010
52. Pina (2011)
PG | 103 min | Documentary, Music
A tribute to the late German choreographer Pina Bausch, as her dancers perform her most famous creations.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Pina Bausch, Regina Advento, Malou Airaudo, Ruth Amarante
Votes: 15,940 | Gross: $3.52M
2011 (Shortlisted)
53. Barbara (I) (2012)
PG-13 | 105 min | Drama
A doctor working in 1980s East Germany finds herself banished to a small country hospital.
Director: Christian Petzold | Stars: Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld, Rainer Bock, Christina Hecke
Votes: 15,957
2012
54. Two Lives (2012)
Unrated | 97 min | Drama, Thriller
As the Berlin Wall crumbles, Katrine, the daughter of a Norwegian woman and a German occupation soldier, finds her idyllic life disrupted as she refuses to testify a trial against the Norwegian state on behalf of her fellow "war children."
Directors: Georg Maas, Judith Kaufmann | Stars: Juliane Köhler, Liv Ullmann, Sven Nordin, Ken Duken
Votes: 3,257 | Gross: $0.00M
2013 (Shortlisted)
55. Beloved Sisters (2014)
Not Rated | 138 min | Drama, History, Romance
The 18th century literary genius Friedrich Schiller falls in love with the sisters Charlotte and Caroline von Lengefeld. After a passionate summer together in a menage a trois, jealousy and rivalry endanger their union.
Director: Dominik Graf | Stars: Hannah Herzsprung, Florian Stetter, Henriette Confurius, Claudia Messner
Votes: 1,598 | Gross: $0.05M
2014
56. Labyrinth of Lies (2014)
R | 124 min | Drama, History
A story that exposes the conspiracy of prominent German institutions and government branches to cover up the crimes of Nazis during World War II.
Director: Giulio Ricciarelli | Stars: André Szymanski, Alexander Fehling, Friederike Becht, Johannes Krisch
Votes: 13,988 | Gross: $0.79M
2015 (Shortlisted)
57. Toni Erdmann (2016)
R | 162 min | Comedy, Drama
A practical joking father tries to reconnect with his hard working daughter by creating an outrageous alter ego and posing as her CEO's life coach.
Director: Maren Ade | Stars: Sandra Hüller, Peter Simonischek, Michael Wittenborn, Thomas Loibl
Votes: 51,995 | Gross: $1.48M
2016 (Nominated)
58. In the Fade (2017)
R | 106 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Katja's life collapses after the deaths of her husband and son in a bomb attack. After a time of mourning and injustice, Katja seeks revenge.
Director: Fatih Akin | Stars: Numan Acar, Adam Bousdoukos, Diane Kruger, Denis Moschitto
Votes: 35,622 | Gross: $0.32M
2017 (Shortlisted)
59. Never Look Away (2018)
R | 189 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
German artist Kurt Barnert has escaped East Germany and now lives in West Germany, but is tormented by his childhood under the Nazis and the GDR-regime.
Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck | Stars: Tom Schilling, Sebastian Koch, Paula Beer, Saskia Rosendahl
Votes: 25,324 | Gross: $1.30M
2018 (Nominated)
60. System Crasher (2019)
125 min | Drama
9-year-old Benni is a toss-up between institutions that cannot tackle her outbursts. She wants to move in with her mother, but she can not handle her wild daughter. After Micha is hired Benni slowly opens up and attaches herself to him.
Director: Nora Fingscheidt | Stars: Helena Zengel, Albrecht Schuch, Gabriela Maria Schmeide, Lisa Hagmeister
Votes: 14,767
2019
61. And Tomorrow the Entire World (2020)
TV-MA | 111 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
How far one is willing to go for the sake of one's political commitment.
Director: Julia von Heinz | Stars: Mala Emde, Noah Saavedra, Tonio Schneider, Andreas Lust
Votes: 3,623
2020
62. I'm Your Man (2021)
R | 108 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
In order to obtain research funds for her studies, a scientist accepts an offer to participate in an extraordinary experiment: for three weeks, she is to live with a humanoid robot, created to make her happy.
Director: Maria Schrader | Stars: Maren Eggert, Dan Stevens, Sandra Hüller, Hans Löw
Votes: 12,599
2021 (Shortlisted)
63. All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)
R | 148 min | Action, Drama, War
A young German soldier's terrifying experiences and distress on the western front during World War I.
Director: Edward Berger | Stars: Felix Kammerer, Albrecht Schuch, Aaron Hilmer, Moritz Klaus
Votes: 245,261
2022 (Won)
64. The Teachers' Lounge (2023)
PG-13 | 98 min | Drama
When one of her students is suspected of theft, teacher Carla Nowak decides to get to the bottom of the matter. Caught between her ideals and the school system, the consequences of her actions threaten to break her.
Director: Ilker Çatak | Stars: Leonie Benesch, Anne-Kathrin Gummich, Rafael Stachowiak, Michael Klammer
Votes: 15,445
2023 (Nominated)
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