CATEGORY: BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR
INTERVIEW WITH: STEFAN RUZOWITZKY
FILM: "THE COUNTERFEITERS" (AUSTRIA)
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Q. How are you doing? With all the foreigners winning tonight, how does it feel to be in that company and what does it say about the foreign filmmaking, independent filmmakers?
A. It's of course, it's an extreme honor, also given the fact that the other nominees were really great filmmakers, like Bodrov, Andrzej Wajda, Nikita Mikhalkov, and which makes this even more valuable for me, of course.
Q. Hi, congratulations.
A. Thanks.
Q. Two questions: First of all, this has a kind of personal message, does it not? You were a grandchild of a Nazi sympathizer. If you could talk about that, whether that drove you to make this film. Secondly, there's been a lot of controversy about films that were left out of this category. Have you got any comments on that, although it seems a bit disingenuous? Thank you.
A. Yes. First thing is, of course, being in Austria and having been raised in Germany, the Third Reich, the Nazis, the crime of the Nazis, this is part of your history, the country's history, also my family's history. So I always felt I should make a sort of comment or statement about this period of time. For me as a filmmaker, it probably was making a movie. And the controversy, it's difficult for me to say for me, forgive me, it was more important to be nominated than to be worried about those who are not nominated.
Q. Andreas. Hello. (German.)
A. Deutsche?
Q. Deutsche or English, whatever.
A. Concerning American filmmakers, I've been adoring growing up, certainly, what do you call it in Hollywood, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, and one of my favorite heroes, Terrence Malick, who is one of my all time favorites.
Q. Hi there. Congratulations.
A. Thanks.
Q. Very first win for Austria, congratulations. Winning the Oscar here obviously is as good as it gets. What does winning the Oscar mean in Austria?
A. A lot. I was surprised to find out, because, really, Austria is all about opera and classical music and theater and Austrians are not really enthusiastic about their movies. But being nominated was really, for the whole country, sort of an exciting thing, as much as I heard. And I hope very much that this award will help us Austrian filmmakers to sort of yeah, make film in Austria stronger. I have some more pressure on the politicians to support the film industry as well. So that's definitely the important aspect of that as well.
Q. Stefan, (German).
A. (German).
Q. Entertainment media. (German.) The question I have is the special camp that they were working on the currency, was that Sachsenhausen near Frankfurt?
A. No. Near Berlin, sort of the yeah, close to Berlin, one of the first concentration camps for political prisoners and so it was close to the capital because of its importance.
Q. Thank you very much and congratulations.
A. Thanks.
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