‘Great Freedom’ Director Sebastian Meise on Inequality in Film: ‘We’re Still Far Too Fixated on Our Western Bubble’

variety.com:

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorIn a new series, Variety catches up with the directors of the films shortlisted for the International Feature Film Oscar to discuss their road to the awards, what they’ve learned so far, and what’s taken them off guard.In “Great Freedom,” the winner of the runner-up prize in Un Certain Regard at Cannes, Austrian director Sebastian Meise takes an empathetic look at the relationship between two prisoners in a German jail: convicted murderer Viktor (Georg Friedrich), and a gay man, Hans (Rogowski), imprisoned repeatedly over three decades under the country’s homophobic Paragraph 175 statute.

The film is Austria’s entry in the International Feature Film category of the Oscars, and is one of 15 films to be shortlisted. What does it mean to you to be shortlisted for the best international feature Oscar?It’s incredibly exciting, and personally, I wasn’t expecting it at all.

When we finished the film in June last year, the Oscars weren’t even on the horizon. It was a strong year for international filmmaking.

Many films were held back during the pandemic and then all came out at once during that brief window of time. We knew it was going to be very difficult to find a place alongside all the big productions and to now be on a list with some of the most important international films of the past year obviously makes us all very happy.What’s been the most challenging aspect of your campaign thus far? That I am now unable to travel to the U.S.