With the drama “Heroine” by Petra Volpe, Switzerland is on the shortlist of 15 candidates for the Oscar preselection. This was announced by the Film Academy in Los Angeles.
December 17, 2025, 07:19December 17, 2025, 07:19
The film “Heroine,” starring Leonie Benesch, tells the story of Floria, a nurse who copes with the relentless work routine on the understaffed surgical ward of her hospital with passion and professionalism. But as the night progresses, their work becomes more and more like a race against time.
Image: filmcoopi
Benesch’s performance in the hospital drama prompted the Federal Office of Culture, among other things, to send the film into the Oscar race, as it announced in August. The Federal Office also praised the work of the Swiss screenwriter and director Petra Volpe as a “thoroughly captivating drama”.
Swiss cameraman
Also on the shortlist is the drama “Looking into the Sun” by Berlin director Mascha Schilinski. German Films, the foreign representation of German films, selected “Looking into the Sun” in August as the German candidate for the 98th Academy Awards next March. The drama is about four young women who live on a farm in the Altmark at different times. It’s about domestic violence, repressed longings and inherited trauma, among other things.
“Looking into the Sun” also made it onto the list of 16 candidates in the “Best Camera” category thanks to the camera work of the Swiss Fabian Gamper. The film “Ballad of a Small Player” by the Austrian-Swiss director Edward Berger is also listed in this category – for the camera work by James Friend. The British cameraman won the Oscar in 2023 for his work on Berger’s war film “All Quiet in the West”.
International competition
In addition to Germany and Switzerland, films from South Korea (“No Other Choice”), Tunisia (“The Voice of Hind Rajab”) and Argentina (“Belén”) are also represented. France made it into the shortlist with “A Simple Accident” by Iranian director Jafar Panahi, Norway with the family drama “Sentimental Value”, Spain with the road movie “Sirât”, Brazil with the thriller “The Secret Agent”.
Of the 15 candidates, five films will be nominated for the final round on January 22nd. The 98th Academy Awards will take place on March 15, 2026.
Last December, the political thriller “The Seed of the Sacred Fig Tree” by the Iranian Mohammad Rasoulof made it onto the shortlist for Germany and then made it into the Oscar final. In the end, the trophy for best international film went to the Brazilian drama “Here Forever” by Walter Salles. (sda/dpa)