Oscars Best Picture nominee profile: ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ would be 2nd non-English language film to win
It’s been anything but quiet on the awards front for Netflix’s “All Quiet on the Western Front.” After lurking under the radar for much of this season, the German World War I epic directed by Edward Berger took this year’s Academy Award nominations by storm, racking up an impressive total of nine, including Best Picture, and becoming just the 14th film not in the English language to be shortlisted for the top honor. If it walks away with the Best Picture prize on March 12, it will follow in the footsteps of “Parasite” (2019) as just the second non-English language film to pull off this feat.
SEE Can ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ win the Oscar categories the 1930 film failed to claim?
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Based on German writer Erich Maria Remarque’s bestselling 1929 novel of the same name, “All Quiet on the Western Front” (originally: “Im Westen nichts Neues”) follows teenagers Paul B?umer (Felix Kammerer) and his friends Albert Kropp (Aaron Hilmer) and Franz Müller (Moritz Klaus), who voluntarily enlist in the German army, riding a wave of patriotic fervor that quickly dissipates once they face the brutal realities of life on the front. Even though Paul’s preconceptions about the enemy — the French — and the rights and wrongs of the conflict soon crumble, he, amid the countdown to armistice, must carry on fighting until the bitter end, with no purpose other than to satisfy the top brass’ desire to end the war on a German offensive.
Berger’s film is, of course, not the first adaptation of Remarque’s anti-war novel to find itself in Oscar contention. The 1930 adaptation — which was an American production and in the English language — won Best Picture and Best Director for Lewis Milestone at the 3rd Academy Awards, becoming the maiden film to snag both these honors. It was also nominated for its cinematography and screenplay, but was unable to attain a victory for either. Will Berger’s version now take home the same awards as Milestone’s?
Since Berger is not shortlisted for Best Director, it can’t. But there is still a good chance it nabs the Best Picture prize just like its predecessor. In the top category, it is up against “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “The Banshees of Inisherin,” “Elvis,” “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “The Fabelmans,” “TáR,” “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Triangle of Sadness” and “Women Talking.”
There’s no doubt that overcoming guild juggernaut “Everything Everywhere” — which has, as of this writing, bagged the top honors from the Directors and Producers Guild of America Awards and swept the Screen Actors Guild Awards — will be an, uh, uphill battle for the anti-war drama. With those three crucial guild victories under its belt, “Everything Everywhere” headed into Oscar voting, which started on March 2, with the most momentum of any nominated film. But its guild success comes with an asterisk: it didn’t have to go up against “All Quiet” on most occasions.
SEE What ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’s’ BAFTA domination means for the Oscars
“All Quiet” was not up at DGA, PGA or SAG and was AWOL at other top guilds as well (it was ineligible at the Writers Guild of America Awards). While you could look at its underperformance at the guilds as a sign of weakness, it is more likely just the result of its late-breaking status. It was a rather low-key drop for Netflix last October and didn’t pick up steam until after it topped the Oscar shortlists, earning five mentions, in late December. So it hasn’t really had the opportunity to establish itself as a strong challenger to “Everything Everywhere” — at least on this side of the Atlantic.
When it went head-to-head against “Everything Everywhere” across the pond at the BAFTA Awards in February, it was the film to come out on top. It netted a total of seven awards — including Best Film, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay — from a leading 14 nominations, becoming the most awarded non-English language movie in the British film academy’s history, while “Everything Everywhere” walked away with just a single victory, for Best Editing, from 10 bids. Although you can chalk up its major success at BAFTA to the Brits just loving their war epics, that doesn’t change the fact that it will have entered the Oscar race with the backing of the influential British voting bloc.
Whether that support translates into wins at the Oscars remains to be seen, but if there is one thing that’s clear, it’s that AMPAS is also very much in the tank for “All Quiet.” Its nine noms tie it with “Banshees” as the second most-nominated film of the year behind “Everything Everywhere” with 11. The other eight categories in which it’s cited are Best International Feature Film, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Sound, Best Production Design, Best Cinematography, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, and Best Visual Effects.
Even if “All Quiet” doesn’t grab the Best Picture Oscar though, it’s all but guaranteed to win Best International Feature — and thereby earn Germany its fourth triumph in the category after “The Tin Drum” (1979), “Nowhere in Africa” (2001) and “The Lives of Others” (2006).
This article is a part of Gold Derby’s “Oscar nominee profile” series spotlighting the 2022 Best Picture nominees.
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