Fatih Akin’s Cannes hit “In the Fade” has been chosen as Germany’s official candidate for the best foreign language film Oscar. The film has already garnered potential awards season buzz around the performance of lead actress Diane Kruger, who won the best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival in May, where the film world-premiered in official competition.
The selection was made from a choice of 11 films submitted to an independent nine-person jury appointed by national film-promotion body German Films. The choice was announced Thursday by jury representative Rainer Matsutani of the German Directors Guild at a press conference in Munich attended by Akin.
“In the Fade” tells the story of a woman (Kruger) whose life falls apart following the death of her husband and son in a bomb attack. When the police arrest two suspects, she wants justice and revenge.
A statement from the jury said: “‘In the Fade’ is at the same time a drama, a court movie and a thriller. Fatih Akin relates law and justice, revenge and pain – with complexity, unsparingly, and with a stirring narrative. The film gives a political issue a human face and unfolds with a ripple effect from which the audience cannot escape, from the first to the very last minute.”
Magnolia Pictures took North American rights on the film earlier this month. The Match Factory is handling worldwide sales on the film, which has sold in more than 30 territories.
Germany has received 10 nominations in the best foreign language film category at the Academy Award since German reunification in 1990, most recently with last year’s “Toni Erdmann.” It has won twice in that period with “Nowhere in Africa” in 2002 and “The Lives of Others” in 2006. Including West and East German submissions prior to 1990, it has a total of 19 nominations in the category and three wins, including “The Tin Drum,” which won for West Germany in 1979.
Akin’s “The Edge of Heaven” was Germany’s foreign language Oscar submission in 2007 but did not secure a nomination.
“In the Fade” was produced by Bombero International and Warner Bros. Film Productions Germany, in co-production with Corazon International and the French Macassar Productions and Pathe. The production was funded by Filmfoerderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, the German Federal Film Fund, the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Film und Medienstiftung NRW, and the German Federal Film Board.
The nominations for the 2017 Academy Awards will be announced on Jan. 23, 2018. The ceremony takes place March 4.

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