It wasn’t all quiet in the Dolby Theatre on Sunday night, as All Quiet on the Western Front took home Oscars for international feature, production design, score and cinematography. “This means so much to us,” writer-director Edward Berger said in his acceptance speech, before turning his attention to star Felix Kammerer. “This was your first movie, and you carried us on your shoulders as if it was nothing,” Berger said. “Without you, none of us would be here.”
Berger’s film is a German-language adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s 1929 novel. It's the fourth German international feature winner, after The Tin Drum in 1979, Nowhere in Africa in 2001 and The Lives of Others in 2006; the 1930 American adaptation of All Quiet also won several Oscars. A famous work of anti-war sentiment, the novel has remained a fixture of World War I storytelling for nearly a century, but until now has never been adapted in its native language. Berger’s screenplay, which he co-wrote with Ian Stokell and Lesley Paterson, is also nominated for best adapted screenplay.
If you’re curious about the work that went into the Oscar-winning production, you’re in luck. You can check out Making All Quiet on the Western Front, a companion documentary that takes you into the trenches of film production — literally. A staggering 800 feet of trenches were dug for the film’s war sequences, all of which had to accommodate not just crowds of extras, but also a full camera crew. It’s no wonder the film became the most-awarded Netflix film in Oscar history; you can check out this year's other winners right here.
All Quiet on the Western Front is streaming on Netflix right now.
