No Oscar for Sandra Hülser – but still a winner
“Oppenheimer” wins seven awards – an overview of all Oscar winners
The biographical epic “Oppenheimer” about the inventor of the atomic bomb has won the Oscar for best film. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough for the German actress Sandra Hülser.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough for German actress Sandra Hülser to win an Oscar. Despite this, both films she starred in won major awards. Jimmy Kimmel’s Nazi joke about the Germans wasn’t well received by everyone.
DThe chances for the Germans were extremely high. After the four-time Oscar win for Edward Berger’s “Nothing New in the West” in 2023, this year İlker Çatak’s school chamber play “The Teacher’s Room” was nominated as the German contribution for the best international film, and Wim Wenders’ life anthem “Perfect Days” was nominated as the Japanese contribution the best international film – and Germany’s great hope Sandra Hülser was nominated as best actress for her performance in the legal thriller “Anatomy of a Case”. A category that actors whose native language is not English rarely make it into. But Sandra Hülser wasn’t just nominated, she starred in two “Best Picture”-nominated films.
But as in Cannes, both of their films managed to win Oscars – Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Case” won the award for Best Original Screenplay and Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest” won the award for Best Sound and Best International Film – only the actress, without whom both works would have been unthinkable, once again came away empty-handed. That’s a shame, but understandable considering the huge competition she had to compete with this year.
Shines on the screen and on the red carpet: Sandra Hülser at the Oscars
Source: Getty Images/Arturo Holmes
At the age of 35, Emma Stone now holds her second Oscar (“La La Land”) in her hands for her portrayal of the child doll Bella Baxter in “Poor Things”. So the Academy decided neither on the extraordinary, i.e. honoring the Germans, nor on a premiere, as would have been the first acting Oscar for an indigenous person in the case of Lily Gladstone, but on the predictable award without much news value.
In her two roles, a writer suspected of the murder of her husband and the wife of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höß, Sandra Hülser displays a complexity that is rarely seen. In 2017, a film with her in the lead role was nominated for best international film – the father-daughter comedy “Toni Erdmann”. After winning the French César Film Prize a few weeks ago, she is considered one of the most sought-after actresses in the world.
Anatomy of a case
Germany’s great hope Sandra Hülser was nominated as best actress for her performance in the legal thriller “Anatomy of a Case”. A category that actors whose native language is not English rarely make it into.
The 45-year-old, who was born in Suhl in the GDR and lives in Leipzig and Bochum, first made a name for herself as a theater actress before, as she does today, walking on red carpets and even becoming one of the best-dressed guests in a black Schiaparelli dress with a large bow of the Oscar evening.
In his opening monologue, host Jimmy Kimmel made a joke in the direction of Sandra Hülser, whom he consistently pronounced “Huller” – so much for the fact that Americans are better at pronouncing foreign language characters than Germans. Hülser plays “a woman who is suspected of murdering her husband and the housewife of a Nazi who lives next to Auschwitz – for the American cinema viewer these are tough material, in Germany, where Sandra comes from, they call it a romantic comedy.” An allusion on the German lack of humor or something more? Sandra Hülser acknowledges the comment with a smile.