Recently, most observers expected this decision: Marie Kreutzer’s Sisi drama did not make it onto the list of the last five works in the race for the foreign Oscar. When the Oscar nominations were announced Tuesday morning (local time) in Los Angeles, Austria’s contribution was denied success after the debate about Florian Teichtmeister. He plays Emperor Franz Joseph in “Corsage” and has to answer in court for pedophile crime at the beginning of February. After the cause became known, some cinemas had already removed “Corsage” from the program.
In contrast, the German production “Nothing New in the West” has been nominated nine times. The film based on the book by Erich Maria Remarque from 1929 was nominated for the Oscar for the best film and the Oscar for the foreign country, among others. There were other nominations in the categories of camera, make-up & hairstyling, production design, sound, visual effects, adapted screenplay and film music.
The film, starring Viennese actor Felix Kammerer, shows the horrors of World War I from the perspective of a young soldier and has been available on Netflix since last year. “Argentina, 1985” (Argentina), “EO” (Poland), “Close” (Belgium) and “The Quiet Girl” (Ireland) also made it to the finals for the International Oscar.
Eleven nominations for “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
With 11 nominations, Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once” is the year’s favorite run a laundromat and have trouble with taxes.
In addition to everyday launderette life, the martial arts multiverse also awaits: In the offbeat film trip about identity and family cohesion, the mother of the family, played by Michelle Yeoh, ultimately becomes the secret martial arts expert in a parallel universe.
Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin, a black humorous breakup film about two stubborn friends on a remote Irish island, received nine nominations. It was followed by Baz Luhrmann’s biopic “Elvis” with eight chances to win.
Steven Spielberg’s autobiographical drama The Fabelmans, in which the 76-year-old filmmaker looks back on his childhood and the lives of his parents, has received seven nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. Top Gun: Maverick” had six nominations, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” had five. James Cameron’s “Avatar 2” made the list four times.
Corsage debate continues
Even after “Corsage” dropped out of the Oscar race, it is to be expected that the discussion about Kreutzer’s Sisi film will continue: In recent weeks, the domestic film scene had been debating whether Kreutzer should have acted differently, especially whether she should have taken the allegations more seriously in 2021 after the first rumors about Teichtmeister became known.
The actor, who embodies Emperor Franz Joseph in “Corsage”, has to answer in court in February for possessing files of sexual abuse of minors. Teichtmeister admitted to downloading 58,000 child abuse images from the dark web between 2008 and 2021.
In interviews in “ORF III Live” and in “kulturMontag”, among others, the director, who seemed visibly concerned, had always defended the film project and emphasized the basic feminist tone of “Corsage”. A self-chosen withdrawal of the film from the Oscar race would have been out of the question for her: “We would give him (Teichtmeister, note) tremendous power if we said: ‘You can no longer see this film.’ I’m not ready for that,” Kreuzer argued in an interview with the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”.
Planned film project about pedophile crime
“Years of work and a lot of love from many people have gone into ‘Corsage’. That’s why it hurts so much that the film will always be afflicted with these horrific acts,” says Kreutzer. A second, unnamed “Corsage” actor is now facing allegations of sexual harassment.
“That’s my greatest misfortune,” she said, “trusted the two men, maybe that wasn’t right.” Since September 2020, Kreutzer has been working on a new film that deals with a topic similar to the Teichtmeister case. Whether this project with the working title “Johnny Maccaroni” will come about is uncertain.
