Sandra Hüller Shifts to Supporting for 'Fatherland,' Setting Up Rare Double Oscar Bid

Sandra Hüller will compete in the supporting actress race for Paweł Pawlikowski's "Fatherland," Variety has confirmed — a move that sets up a possible double acting nomination at the 99th Oscars.

Mubi, which is handling the U.S. release of the black-and-white postwar drama, will campaign both Hüller and co-star Hanns Zischler in the supporting categories at the Academy Awards and across the awards circuit. The pair play Erika and Thomas Mann, the daughter and the Nobel Prize-winning author at the center of the film.

The decision comes as a surprise. "Fatherland" is a two-hander built almost entirely on the fractious, tender exchanges between father and daughter as they travel from American-occupied Frankfurt to Soviet-controlled Weimar in the summer of 1949. Hüller anchors the film's emotional arc and had been widely expected to compete in lead. The campaign instead positions the film as an ensemble piece in which neither actor claims top billing.

A signal came early. Hüller earned a nomination for outstanding supporting performance at the Gotham Awards — though Gotham placement is not always a predictor of where a studio ultimately lands with Academy voters, and many in the awards community assumed the Oscar push would go lead.

What does the strategy change?

The placement is not limited to the Academy. Hüller has been submitted in supporting across every guild and awards ceremony this season, including the Golden Globes and the Actor Awards, formerly the SAG Awards.

Supporting actress is historically one of the Academy's most fluid categories, and the move gives Hüller a clearer runway than a lead field shaping up as one of the most crowded in years. It also keeps her out of direct competition with her own work: "Rose," which Mubi also distributes, now stands as her sole lead contender this season and is Austria's official entry in the international feature category.

Hüller's year extends well beyond two films:

• Lead actress campaign for "Rose"
• Supporting bids for Amazon MGM's "Project Hail Mary" and Warner Bros.' "Digger"
• An undisclosed role in Marvel's "Avengers: Doomsday," opening in December

In lead, "Rose" pits her against presumptive front-runner Julianne Moore for "The Debut," Olivia Wilde for "The Invite," Inde Navarrette for "Obsession," Virginie Efira for "All of a Sudden" and Carrie Coon for "The Liberation." In supporting, her bids collide with Anne Hathaway and Samantha Morton from Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey," Penélope Cruz, Kate O'Flynn for "Tender Loving Care" and Amanda Seyfried for "You Can See Everything."

A rule change at the 99th Oscars raises the stakes: an actor may now earn multiple nominations in the same category, provided each performance ranks among the top five vote-getters. Previously, only the highest finisher advanced.

If Hüller lands nominations in both lead and supporting, she becomes only the 13th performer in Oscar history to do so in a single year, joining Cate Blanchett, Jamie Foxx and Scarlett Johansson, the last to achieve it, for "Marriage Story" and "Jojo Rabbit" in 2019. Of the 12 who have pulled it off, seven won one of the two categories.

"Fatherland" premiered in competition at Cannes, where Pawlikowski won best director, and Poland has selected it as its submission for best international feature. Hüller was nominated for best actress for "Anatomy of a Fall" in 2024. Zischler, the New German Cinema veteran known for his work with Wim Wenders, has never been nominated.

Pawlikowski co-wrote the film with Hendrik Handloegten. August Diehl plays Klaus Mann, with Devid Striesow and Anna Madeley also starring; Łukasz Żal, Oscar-nominated for "Ida" and "Cold War," shot the picture, which the director calls the final chapter of his historical trilogy.

"Fatherland" is in theaters now.