Sandra Wollner’s Everytime has been selected as Germany’s official entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 99th Academy Awards. The German-Austrian drama won the top prize in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival and was chosen by an independent nine-member jury appointed by German Films from 11 films submitted for consideration.
The selection puts Everytime on the first stage of the Oscar race, although the film still has to make it through the Academy’s eligibility, shortlist and nomination processes before it can officially become an Oscar nominee. Germany’s submission will now compete for a place on the 15-film International Feature Film shortlist, which is scheduled to be announced in December.
Written and directed by Wollner, Everytime is a drama about grief, loss and the complicated ways people respond to a family tragedy. The story follows Ella, whose teenage daughter Jessie has died. She is left with her younger daughter, Melli, and a complicated relationship with Lux, the teenage boy blamed by those around him for Jessie’s death.
The three eventually travel to Tenerife for a family holiday that never actually happened. Away from home, memories of Jessie begin to overlap with the present, creating an increasingly blurred line between what is real and what is remembered. Through this shifting reality, the film explores grief, guilt, forgiveness and the difficulty of moving forward after a sudden loss.
The film stars Birgit Minichmayr as Ella, Tristán López as Lux and Lotte Keiling as Melli. Wollner also wrote the screenplay, with Gregory Oke serving as cinematographer. The film has a reported runtime of approximately two hours.
Everytime premiered in competition at the 79th Cannes Film Festival in May 2026, where it competed in Un Certain Regard and won the Prix Un Certain Regard, the section’s top award. The Cannes recognition has since been followed by appearances at several international festivals, including the Sydney Film Festival, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, New Zealand International Film Festival and Melbourne International Film Festival.
The film also won the Heart of Sarajevo Grand Prize at the Sarajevo Film Festival. Its North American premiere is scheduled for September at the Toronto International Film Festival, while a screening at the New York Film Festival has also been confirmed.
German Films’ jury praised Wollner’s approach to grief, particularly the film’s use of cinematography and its unusual narrative structure to move between memory, imagination and reality. The jury also highlighted the performances and the film’s visual atmosphere as major strengths.
Everytime was selected from 11 films submitted to German Films for consideration. The original field included titles such as The Dreamed Adventure, Visitation, Minotaur and Prosecution, before the independent jury made up of representatives from different areas of the German film industry made its final decision.
Germany’s Oscar selection process is particularly notable this year because of changes to the Academy’s eligibility rules. Two other German productions, İlker Çatak’s Yellow Letters and Visar Morina’s Shame And Money, automatically qualified for consideration after winning major prizes at international festivals. Yellow Letters won the Golden Bear at the 2026 Berlin International Film Festival, while Shame And Money won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic at Sundance.
As a result, Germany has three films eligible for consideration in this year’s International Feature Film race. However, Everytime remains the country’s official submission, having been selected through the national process.
The selection does not guarantee Everytime a place among the final Oscar nominees. The Academy is scheduled to publish the complete list of eligible films in early November, followed by the 15-film shortlist on December 15, 2026. The five final nominees will be announced on January 21, 2027, ahead of the 99th Academy Awards on March 14, 2027, in Los Angeles.
For now, Everytime enters the international feature race with the advantage of major festival recognition at Cannes and Sarajevo, as well as a growing international profile. The film opened in German cinemas on August 6, while international sales are being handled by Charades. According to German Films, the film has already been sold to more than 30 territories, with North American distributor 1-2 Special planning a theatrical release in early 2027.
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