15 August 2026

The Pants, Patriarchy and Sandra Hüller: 'Rose' Enters the Oscar Race

Black-and-white poster for 'Rose' with Sandra Hüller in close-up and gold film title and award text.

Quick Read

• Austria has selected Rose by Markus Schleinzer as its submission for the 99th Academy Awards in the International Feature Film category.
• The decision was made by a nine-member voting jury drawn from directing, screenwriting, production, cinematography, editing, set design and film representation, with three additional advisers.
• Sandra Hüller won the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance at the Berlinale for her role as Rose.
• The film's trousers are more than period costume: they become a visual sign of the freedom and social status denied to women.
• Rose competed against Marie Kreutzer's Gentle Monster and Adrian Goiginger's Vier minus drei, both of which also attracted international attention and awards.

Why the jury chose Rose

Austria's Oscar decision is a selection by the film industry, not a government nomination. The nine voting members included directors Mark Gerstorfer, Gerda Leopold and Thomas Rigler; screenwriter Maria Hinterkörner; production designer Antoinette Höring; cinematographer Wolfgang Thaler; editor Cordula Werner; producer Claudia Wohlgenannt; and Anne Laurent-Delage, managing director of Austrian Films. Three experts participated in an advisory role. Their choice came from three films submitted by Austrian production companies: Rose, Marie Kreutzer's Gentle Monster and Adrian Goiginger's Vier minus drei. The jury highlighted Rose's artistic unity, black-and-white cinematography and its story of freedom, self-determination and social constraints.

A woman, a soldier — and a pair of trousers

Set during the Thirty Years' War, Rose follows a soldier who arrives in a Protestant village claiming to be heir to an abandoned estate. The soldier is Rose, played by Sandra Hüller, who is living as a man. Her disguise is not simply a plot device: male clothing provides access to rights, mobility and authority unavailable to women in the society depicted. This makes the trousers particularly interesting from a fashion perspective. Costume designer Doris Bartelt helped construct the film's historical world, with costumes developed from old and worn fabrics and extensive handwork. Schleinzer has described in an interview the costume process as beginning about a year before filming. The trousers therefore function simultaneously as costume, disguise and social technology: a simple garment changes how Rose can move through the world.

From Berlin's Silver Bear to Austria's Oscar choice

Rose had its world premiere in the Berlinale Competition on 15 February 2026. Hüller subsequently received the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance. The film later became the opening film of the Diagonale in Graz, where it won the Thomas Pluch Screenwriting Award for Schleinzer and Alexander Brom and the award for Best Feature Film Music for Tara Nome Doyle. The Diagonale is Austria's central festival for contemporary Austrian cinema. Its role is different from the Berlinale or Cannes: it provides a national platform for Austrian films, filmmakers and film culture and is an important meeting point for the domestic industry. Rose opened the 2026 festival on 18 March.

What happens next — and what about Hüller?

The Austrian decision currently concerns International Feature Film. It does not mean that Hüller has separately been submitted for Best Actress. Under Academy rules, films can also compete in general categories if they meet the relevant requirements; a country does not nominate an actor on the actor's behalf. The Academy's 2026 rules also require a qualifying theatrical release for general awards consideration. Hüller certainly has an established Oscar profile: she was nominated for Best Actress for Anatomy of a Fall at the 2024 Oscars. A renewed acting campaign around Rose is therefore plausible, as are considerations for screenplay and selected craft categories. But as of now, the confirmed Austrian submission is the International Feature Film entry; further nominations depend on eligibility, campaigning, Academy voting and ultimately the competition. The next milestones are the 15-film International Feature shortlist on 15 December 2026, nominations on 21 January 2027, and the 99th Oscars on 14 March 2027, broadcast live from Los Angeles to more than 200 territories. And that is where the analogy with sport fits: making the Olympic team is not the same as winning a medal. At the Oscars, being there is already a result — and Rose has now secured its place at the starting line.

Image: Black-and-white film poster for 'Rose', featuring Sandra Hüller as the central figure. The poster announces Austria-Germany drama 'Rose and its Berlinale Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance. © Schubert, ROW Pictures, Walker + Worm Film & Gerald Kerkletz.