German film “Nothing New in the West” has received the most Bafta nominations to date

The German World War II drama “Nothing New in the West” has been nominated 14 times by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), making it one of the foreign films with the most nominations in British film history. The film’s central message is still relevant today, Bafta boss Jane Millichip told the AFP news agency on Thursday after the nominations were announced.

“It’s a really interesting choice that we’re making now, but I think the anti-war perspective is relevant at all times,” she said. The film was nominated in the categories Best Film, Best Director, Foreign Film, Screenplay and Albrecht Schuch as Supporting Actor.

With 14 nominations, the German entry has a good chance of being presented with this year’s Bafta Awards on February 19. Only Ang Lee’s 2001 Chinese-Taiwanese film “Tiger and Dragon” has received 14 nominations.

Director Edward Berger’s Netflix production is a remake of Erich-Maria Remarque’s 1928 anti-war novel of the same name, about the experiences of a young German soldier in World War I. There was already a US film adaptation. In the German version, actor Felix Kammerer plays the leading role.

Berger told AFP that his film differs in perspective from British or US war films, which are shot from the victors’ point of view. On the other hand, it was important to him to convey the feeling of shame felt in Germany in connection with the war.

At the Golden Globes in Los Angeles on January 11, “Nothing New on the West” was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, but went away empty-handed.

kbh/ju