All Quiet on the Western Front, which shot in and around Prague two years back, picked up four Academy Awards last night in Los Angeles. Director Edward Berger’s feature, which is now steaming on Netflix, won for Best International Film, Best Production Design, Best Score, and Best Cinematography.

“This means so much to us,” Berger said while accepting All Quiet on the Western Front‘s award for Best International Film speech. “This was your first movie, and you carried us on your shoulders as if it was nothing,” he told star Felix Kammerer. “Without you, none of us would be here.”

While All Quiet on the Western Front is the first German-language adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s 1929 novel, based on his experiences in the First World War, it didn’t begin life as a German production.

Scottish triathlete Lesley Paterson, who won gold medals at the world championships in 2011, 2012, and 2018, became a big fan of the novel after studying it in school. She wrote a new screenplay for the film, which had been made before in 1930 and 1979, with journalist and athlete Ian Stokell, and obtained the film rights to the book in 2006.

It took 15 years for Paterson to realize her script, when All Quiet on the Western Front in Prague in the spring of 2021. She had to renew the film rights every year until then, eventually spending $200,000 on her passion project.

Paterson was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, along with Stokell and director Berger, but lost out to Everything Everywhere All at Once, which also took home Best Picture over All Quiet on the Western Front. Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Ke Huy Quan won Oscars for their performances in Everything Everywhere, and Daniels Kwan and Scheinert won Best Director.

In accepting the Academy Award for Best Production Design, All Quiet Set Decorator Ernestine Hipper personally thanked the Prague crew for their hard work on the film, creating the trenches of WWI in a muddy field outside of the Czech capital two years ago.

Four Prague-based filmmakers were also nominated for Oscars for their work on All Quiet on the Western Front, but ultimately did not win.

Linda Eisenhamerová was nominated for Makeup and Hairstyling along with Heike Merker, but lost out to the team from The Whale. Brendan Fraser also scored Best Actor for his lead performance in the Darren Aronofsky drama, now playing in Prague cinemas.

Viktor Prášil scored a nomination for Best Sound alongside Frank Kruse, Markus Stemler, Lars Ginzel and Stefan Korte, but the All Quiet on the Western Front team ultimately lost out to Top Gun: Maverick.

And UPP Prague’s Viktor Müller and Kamil Jafar were nominated for Best Visual Effects along with Markus Frank and Frank Petzold, but lost to Avatar: The Way of Water.

These are the full results of the 2023 Academy Awards:

Best Picture

• Everything Everywhere All at Once (WINNER)
• All Quiet on the Western Front
• Avatar: The Way of Water
• The Banshees of Inisherin
• Elvis
• The Fabelmans
• Tár
• Top Gun: Maverick
• Triangle of Sadness
• Women Talking

Best Director

• Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once (WINNER)
• Todd Field, Tár
• Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
• Ruben Ostlund, Triangle of Sadness
• Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans

Best Actress

• Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once
• Ana de Armas, Blonde
• Cate Blanchett, Tár
• Andrea Riseborough, To Leslie
• Michelle Williams, The Fabelmans

Best Actor

• Brendan Fraser, The Whale (WINNER)
• Austin Butler, Elvis
• Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin
• Bill Nighy, Living
• Paul Mescal, Aftersun

Best Supporting Actress

• Jamie Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All at Once (WINNER)
• Angela Bassett, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
• Hong Chau, The Whale
• Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin
• Stephanie Hsu, Everything Everywhere All at Once

Best Supporting Actor

• Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once (WINNER)
• Brendan Gleeson, The Banshees of Inisherin
• Judd Hirsch, The Fabelmans
• Barry Keoghan, The Banshees of Inisherin
• Brian Tyree Henry, Causewa

Best International Feature Film

• All Quiet on the Western Front (WINNER)
• Argentina, 1985
• Close
• EO
• The Quiet Girl

Best Animated Feature

• Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (WINNER)
• Marcel the Shell With Shoes On
• Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
• The Sea Beast
• Turning Red

Best Documentary Feature

• Navalny (WINNER)
• All That Breathes
• All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
• Fire of Love
• A House Made of Splinters

Best Documentary Short

• The Elephant Whisperers (WINNER)
• Halout
• The Martha Mitchell Effect
• How Do You Measure a Year?
• Stranger at the Gate

Best Original Song

• “Naatu Naatu” by Kala Bhairava, M. M. Keeravani, Rahul Sipligunj for RRR (WINNER)
• “Applause” by Diane Warren for Tell It Like a Woman
• “Hold My Hand” by Lady Gaga and Bloodpop for Top Gun: Maverick
• “Lift Me Up” by Tems, Ludwig Göransson, Rihanna and Ryan Coogler for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
• “This Is a Life” by Ryan Lott, David Byrne and Mitski for Everything Everywhere All at Once

Best Costume Design

• Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (WINNER)
• Babylon
• Elvis
• Everything Everwhere All at Once
• Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris

Best Sound

• Top Gun: Maverick (WINNER)
• All Quiet on the Western Front
• Avatar: The Way of Water
• The Batman
• Elvis

Best Original Score

• All Quiet on the Western Front (WINNER)
• Babylon
• The Banshees of Inisherin
• The Fabelmans
• Everything Everywhere All At Once

Best Cinematography

• All Quiet on the Western Front (WINNER)
• Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
• Elvis
• Empire of Light
• Tár

Best Adapted Screenplay

• Women Talking (WINNER)
• Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
• Living
• All Quiet on the Western Front
• Top Gun: Maverick

Best Original Screenplay

• Everything Everywhere All at Once (WINNER)
• The Banshees of Inisherin
• The Fabelmans
• Tár
• Triangle of Sadness

Best Live-Action Short

• An Irish Goodbye (WINNER)
• Ivalu
• Le Pupille
• Night Rise
• The Red Suitcase

Best Animated Short

• The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (WINNER)
• The Flying Sailor
• Ice Merchants
• An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It
• My Year of Dicks

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

• The Whale (WINNER)
• All Quiet on the Western Front
• The Batman
• Elvis
• Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Best Production Design

• All Quiet on the Western Front (WINNER)
• Avatar: The Way of Water
• Babylon
• Elvis
• The Fabelmans

Best Film Editing

• Everything Everywhere All at Once (WINNER)
• The Banshees of Inisherin
• Elvis
• Tár
• Top Gun: Maverick
• Best Visual Effects

• Avatar: The Way of Water (WINNER)
• All Quiet on the Western Front
• The Batman
• Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
• Top Gun: Maverick