Berlin – Lots of news in the capital! The Berlin production “Nothing New in the West” has a chance at the Oscar on March 12th – in nine categories! That’s how many times the anti-war drama has been nominated. And with it Markus Frank (38) – he took care of the visual effects of the film on the computer.
Frank and his 25-strong team from the Charlottenburg company “Cine Chromatix” have dedicated themselves to post-production. They ensure perfect film scenes. “Sometimes the situation at the location is not what we wanted,” he says to BILD.
On a day of shooting, the sun melted the snow on the meadows in the background. “But the director wanted snow everywhere. We animated it using photos,” says Frank. That lasted a whole week.
On the day of shooting, the snow on the meadows melted – but the director really wanted some. It was then animated on the computer. Here is the before picture…
… here the after picture with more snow, also in the background
Explosions and bomb blasts were filmed far away from the actors, later superimposed over the scenes. The expert proudly: “When I saw the first images from the film, I realized that it was something special. It was shot in a beautiful, new and modern way – simply different from what you know from German films.”
An Oscar after six months of work? “It’s all totally weird,” says Frank. He and three other specialists are nominated in the Best Visual Effects category. The Berliner wants to arrive for the awards ceremony in Hollywood on March 7th – it is his first visit to Los Angeles. Also present: his wife.
Great chances for an Oscar: The anti-war drama has been nominated in nine categories!
“Before the Oscars, there’s a dinner with the other nominees to get to know each other,” says Frank. He had a tuxedo specially made for the ceremony: “In classic black,” he says.
“Nothing New in the West” is already a sensational success for the Berlin director Edward Berger (53). And not just because of the nine nominations: so far, German films have “only” won the Oscar for the best non-English language film. And that has only happened three times so far: in 1980 with “The Tin Drum”, in 2003 with “Nowhere in Africa” and finally in 2007 with “The Lives of Others”.
The Austrian Felix Kammerer (27, right) plays the leading role as soldier Paul Bäumer in “Nothing New in the West”.
No German film has ever won the “Best Film” award! In the case of the Berlin hit film that could do that now, not even the film funding has a finger in the pie. Although it spends 450 million euros every year on German productions, the big success usually does not come. Nothing New in the West was funded solely by Netflix. Cost point: around 20 million euros.
In addition to director Berger, other Berliners are involved in the anti-war drama – including the actors Daniel Brühl (44), Edin Hasanovic (30), Devid Striesow (49) and Tobias Langhoff (died on his 60th birthday in November).
