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Franz Rogowski as Tomas Freiburg in »Passages«: Award-worthy role

Photo: Landmark Media / IMAGO

Surprise at the beginning of the »Awards Season«: The German actor Franz Rogowski, 37, has received a major award in the USA and thus increased his chances in the current trophy competition.

The New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) named Rogowski best actor for his role in the relationship drama "Passages." The winners in twelve film categories were announced on Thursday.

Last year, Colin Farrell ("The Banshees of Inisherin") won the award and was later nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor. The trophies of the NYFCC, founded in 1935, are among the first of the many film award ceremonies in the coming months. Often, the winners are also among the candidates for the Oscars in March.

The NYFCC Awards are the oldest film critics' award in the U.S. and correspondingly prestigious. The record winners in the male actor category are Daniel Day-Lewis and Jack Nicholson with four awards each.

Film with Sandra Hüller awarded

The New York critics chose the historical drama »Killers of the Flower Moon« by director Martin Scorsese as the best film. Leading actress Lily Gladstone won Best Actress. The drama »Oppenheimer« also won two awards – for director Christopher Nolan and for best cinematography.

In the International Film category, the French legal drama »Anatomy of a Case« won. The German Sandra Hüller, 45, ("Toni Erdmann") plays a writer who is accused of killing her husband in the house they shared. The drama by French director Justine Triet was this year's winning film at the Cannes Film Festival.

Actor award winner Franz Rogowski was born in Freiburg im Breisgau in 1986, a fact that may have been reflected in his role name Tomas Freiburg in »Passages«. In the film by director Ira Sachs, Rogowski's Tomas is a German filmmaker whose marriage to a man (Ben Whishaw) goes into crisis after Tomas dances with a woman (Adèle Exarchopoulos) and then has sex.

The French production »Passages« premiered at the Sundance Festival in January and then screened at the Berlinale in the »Panorama« section. The film was nominated for a Teddy Award for Best Feature Film.

Franz Rogowski became known to a wider audience with his role in Sebastian Schipper's feature film »Victoria« in 2015. Since then, he has starred in films by Christian Petzold ("Transit", "Undine"), Michael Haneke ("Happy End") and Terrence Malick ("A Hidden Life").

For his leading role in Thomas Stuber's literary adaptation »In den Gängen«, Rogowski received the German Film Award in 2018. In 2022, he was awarded the German Actor Award for his portrayal of a homosexual man who has to go to prison several times for it, in Sebastian Meise's »Great Freedom«.

feb/dpa