Poland Selects Agnieszka Holland’s "Franz" for Oscars International Feature Race

Poland’s Oscar Selection Committee has chosen Agnieszka Holland’s Franz Kafka biopic “Franz” as the country’s candidate for the best international feature film category of the 98th Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards.

Holland is known for Oscar nominated films “Angry Harvest,” “Europa Europa,” and “In Darkness.”

The film portrays Kafka as a young man trapped in the nightmare of bureaucratic routine, eerily resembling today’s corporate world. 

He is a vegetarian by choice—long before it became common; he is the son of a domineering father, and entangled in fragile relationships with women.

Kafka is plunged into an existential crisis well before loneliness became a side effect of social media. Misunderstood and full of fears, he escaped into a world of irony, absurdity and imagination, creating works that made him one of the most outstanding writers of the 20th century.

German actor Idan Weiss plays Kafka, Czech actor Jenovéfa Boková is Milena Jesenská, German actor Peter Kurth (“Babylon Berlin”) portrays the author’s father Hermann, Poland’s Sandra Korzeniak takes the role of his mother, Czech thespian Ivan Trojan is his uncle, Czech actor Josef Trojan plays Kafka’s alter ego, and Germany’s Katharina Stark has the pivotal role of Kafka’s sister Ottla.

The script is by Marek Epstein. Šárka Cimbalová produces through the Czech Republic’s Marlene Film Production, with Holland.

It is an international co-production with Germany’s X Filme Creative Pool (Uwe Schott, Jorgo Narjes) and Poland’s Metro Films (Marcin Wierzchosławski, Alicja Jagodzińska).

Co-producers also include Barrandov Studio, Telewizja Polska, Czech Television, Canal+, Czech Anglo Production, and NeoSynCon.

Jeff Field, Kevan van Thompson, Mike Downey, and Daniel Bergman serve as executive producers.

The film received co-production support from David Grumbach and Alexis Hofmann of Bac Films and the Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

The film was supported by the Czech Audiovisual Fund, Eurimages, the Polish Film Institute, the Prague Audiovisual Foundation, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, ZDF/ARTE, DFFF and the film offices of the Pilsen and Ústí nad Labem regions. ČPP and Bluetech are partners of the film.

The film had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in the Special Presentation section. Films Boutique is handling international sales.

The Oscar international feature shortlist will be announced on December 16 and the final five nominees will be announced on January 22.