Alles Wird Gut (Everything Will Be Okay)

Director: Patrick Vollrath

Stars: Michael Schwarz, Julia Pointer, Marion Rottenhofer

With awards season now well and truly upon us with the Golden Globes recently providing the first indicators as to who we can expect to sweep up the gongs this year, there are plenty of movies to get excited about.

But among the plethora of full feature-length offerings, it would be criminal to steer away from the talent pool within the Live-Action Short Film sector of the awards race.

As the day for nominations approaches, one short film has caught our eye in the form of Patrick Vollrath’s Alles Wird Gut (Everything Will Be Okay).

A short that very much channels a major part of everyday life in the world we are in today, we follow Michael Baumgartner (Simon Schwarz), father of eight-year-old Lea (Julia Pointer), whose weekends spent with his daughter clearly mean everything and more.

But on this particular weekend meeting between the two something seems off; Lea’s father is seemingly in a rush, he is on edge and is taking his daughter to complete documentations before they head to the fair. What is running through his mind and where are they heading?

In a world where nearly half of all children are experiencing their parents splitting up, Everything Will Be Okay couldn’t be more relatable with audiences. Here we have a scenario of a young girl being split between her parents and the struggles in each individual coming to terms with the situation.

In particular, this short explores the father-daughter relationship; both clearly have an undying love for one another, but this is tarnished by the relationship break-up between mother and father.

This is what makes the short such a powerful and moving entity within this year’s possible Oscar nominations. Each frame is drenched in emotion, every act of love is done with the best of intentions, but ultimately there is always a void in the statement that everything will indeed be okay.

At the heart of the film are two untouchable performances in Simon Schwarz and Julia Pointer. Schwarz’s desperate father will make you feel both sadness and anguish and pull your emotions apart with his portrayal of a broken father. Meanwhile, the exceptional Pointer proves she is a young actress going places as she looks to provide the level ground and moral compass to her ailing father.

Everything Will Be Okay is powerful, it’s emotional and it is a wonderful representation of the difficulties and struggles that come with broken homes. We sincerely hope that come Thursday’s nominations, this will be in with a shout for the golden statuette.