"Names are smoke and mirrors", literature professor Stephan liked to say time and again, and yet it was possible to argue about precisely that in 2018 in "Der Vorname". While Adolf acted as an accelerant in the discussions within the intimate family back then, this time it's "The Surname" Böttcher - which is on the verge of supposed extinction.
Sönke Wortmann's "Der Nachname" is not only the logical sequel to the successful social comedy "Der Vorname", but also goes one step further in terms of humour and poignancy.

Iris Berben

As one of two "Heavenly Daughters", Iris Berben made a name for herself as a comedienne at the end of the 1970s. Since then, she has become an integral part of German TV (including as Commissioner "Rosa Roth"), but also increasingly in international cinema (most recently in this year's Cannes winner "Triangle of Sadness"). What is less well known is that Berben, who was born in Detmold in 1950, is also politically active, including against anti-Semitism, in favour of social democracy and, from 2010 to 2019, as President of the German Film Academy for German film.

"Austria has always had the explosive in art," says Elfriede Jelinek about her home country. She explains this with the repression in the country, which is felt by the state, religion and, not least, society. For Jelinek, who discovered writing as a form of expression in her early youth, it is part of the creative process to "let language off the leash". The title of Claudia Müller's impressively illuminating documentary about the writer Elfriede Jelinek could hardly be more aptly chosen.

Claudia Müller

Born in Bergneustadt in 1964, journalist and director Claudia Müller is one of the most renowned portraitists on German television. Since the 1990s, she has specialised in TV reports and documentaries about artists, including Susanne Lothar, Annette Humpe, Jim Rakete, Vicco von Bülow and, time and again, the American conceptual artist Jenny Holzer. in 2015, she made a documentary about the Austrian performance artist Valie Export in collaboration with Elfriede Jelinek.

"Nothing New in the West" is the most famous novel about the war. It was written by Erich Maria Remarque from Osnabrück, based on his own experiences and those of his comrades in the First World War. Published in Germany in 1928 and made into a Hollywood film in 1930, the novel was burnt by the Nazis in 1933. Edward Berger's adaptation of the story of Paul Bäumer, who volunteers for military service as a high school student and experiences killing and dying in the trenches on the French Western Front, is the first German co-produced version of the material. The chances of being nominated as a German candidate for the best foreign-language film at the Oscars are therefore good.