The Oscar-nominated German actress Sandra Hüller was the guest for a special episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast that was recorded last Friday at the Cannes Film Festival in front of an audience in the Campari Lounge within the Palais. Best known for 2016’s Toni Erdmann and 2023’s Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest, all of which premiered in Cannes, the 48-year-old was back on the Croisette in the midst of a year unlike any other.
Indeed, Hüller has given three major performances in 2026. In February, she won Berlin’s lead acting award for her portrayal of a 17th-century woman passing as a man in Markus Schleinzer’s Rose. March brought the blockbuster Project Hail Mary, a sci-fi dramedy in which she goes toe-to-toe with Ryan Gosling as the world hangs in the balance. And she is now garnering raves in Cannes for her turn as German writer Thomas Mann’s daughter, Erika, in Paweł Pawlikowski’s competition film Fatherland.
Oh, and she has yet another big project still to come in the fall: Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Digger, a $125 million satirical black comedy in which she stars opposite one Tom Cruise. “I am nearly bursting wanting to talk about this movie,” she said, “But I can’t. I legally can’t. I can say that I saw a version that’s maybe not the final version, and that it impresses me beyond anything I’ve ever seen. I think it’s going to be a remarkable film.”
