Austria Picks Sandra Hüller's 'Rose' for Oscar Race
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- Austria selected Markus Schleinzer's black-and-white period drama 'Rose' as its entry for the International Oscar category.
- Sandra Hüller won the Silver Bear for best leading performance at the Berlin Film Festival, where 'Rose' had its world premiere in competition.
- In 'Rose,' Hüller plays a scar-disfigured stranger who produces a document claiming heirship to an abandoned farmstead in a secluded Protestant village during the Thirty Years' War, gradually winning the community's trust through 'impossible deceit.'
- Mubi acquired all rights to 'Rose' for North America, UK, Ireland, Italy, Turkey, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand, with no North American release date yet set; Mubi-owned The Match Factory is handling international sales.
- 'Rose' is an Austrian-German co-production from Schubert, Row Pictures and Walker + Worm Film, produced by Johannes Schubert, Philipp Worm, Tobias Walker and Karsten Stöter.
- Schleinzer spent nearly two decades as one of Europe's most celebrated casting directors — including directing child performances on Michael Haneke's Oscar-nominated 'The White Ribbon' — and 'Rose' marks only his third feature after 'Michael' (2011) and 'Angelo' (2018).
- Hüller is coming off a remarkable run: the box-office hit 'Project Hail Mary' opposite Ryan Gosling, Alejandro G. Iñárritu's 'Digger' with Tom Cruise, and Pawel Pawlikowski's Cannes hopeful 'Fatherland.'
- Deadline critic Damon Wise called 'Rose' 'a remarkable piece of work, one that cements [Hüller's] reputation as a striking yet surprisingly chameleonic talent with Tilda Swinton's eye for dark but intellectually rewarding material.'
Why it matters: Austria's submission of 'Rose' pairs a Berlinale Silver Bear winner — the most concrete festival validation in the Oscar race — with Mubi's pre-buy across eight major territories, signaling serious distributor commitment before a release date is even set. Hüller enters the conversation with a rare combination of auteur credibility and mainstream visibility from her Gosling/Iñárritu/Pawlikowski slate, giving the film unusual crossover potential.
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