September 5 (film)

September 5
Promotional poster
Directed by	Tim Fehlbaum
Written by	Tim Fehlbaum Moritz Binder Alex David
Produced by	Philipp Trauer Thomas Wöbke Tim Fehlbaum Sean Penn John Ira Palmer John Wildermuth
Starring	Peter Sarsgaard John Magaro Ben Chaplin Leonie Benesch
Cinematography	Markus Förderer
Edited by	Hansjörg Weißbrich
Music by	Lorenz Dangel
Production companies	BerghausWöbke Filmproduktion Projected Picture Works Constantin Film Edgar Reitz Filmproduktion
Distributed by	Constantin Film (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) Paramount Pictures (International)
Release dates	August 29, 2024 (2024-08-29) (Venice) November 29, 2024 (2024-11-29) (United States)
Running time	94 minutes
Countries	Germany United States
Languages	English German

September 5 is a 2024 historical drama film co-written and directed by Tim Fehlbaum. The film recounts the 1972 Munich Olympic hostage crisis from the perspective of the ABC Sports crew and their coverage of the events.

The film had its world premiere at the 81st Venice International Film Festival on 29 August 2024, and is scheduled to be released in select theaters on 29 November 2024 before expanding on 13 December, by Paramount Pictures.

Cast

• Peter Sarsgaard as Roone Arledge
• John Magaro as Geoffrey Mason
• Ben Chaplin as Marvin Bader
• Leonie Benesch as Marianne Gebhardt
• Zinedine Soualem as Jacques Lesgards
• Corey Johnson as Hank Hanson
• Georgina Rich as Gladys Deist
• Benjamin Walker as Peter Jennings

Additionally, ABC anchors Jim McKay and Jennings appear through archival footage from Wide World of Sports.

Production

The film makes extensive use of archival footage from ABC's coverage of the 1972 Summer Olympics and the hostage crisis. Fehlbaum and his team spent months researching the events, and worked with a production design team to create an authentic replica of the broadcasting facility used by ABC Sports on that day.

Release

The film premiered on 29 August 2024, as the opening film at the 81st Venice International Film Festival in the Orizzonti Extra section. A few days before being announced as part of the Venice slate, Paramount Pictures' Republic Pictures acquired worldwide sales rights outside Germany, Austria and Switzerland to the film. Following an overwhelmingly positive response at Venice and Telluride, Paramount decided it was best to keep the film with them, with the main studio opting to officially acquire distribution rights. Originally scheduling it for a wide release on November 27, 2024, Paramount later pivoted to a limited theatrical release on November 29, expanding wide two weeks later on December 13. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Toronto International Film Festival rejected the film "ostensibly because it might generate controversy related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict", despite screening the documentary Russians at War, whose portrayal of the Russian invasion of Ukraine "did result in protests of such a scale that the fest ended up pulling the film."

Reception

Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 76 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

External links

• September 5 at IMDb