Oscar-Nominated ‘September 5’ Filmmakers to Appear at Santa Barbara International Film Festival

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — September 5 tells the story of how an ABC Sports broadcasting crew had to pivot to cover the deadly hostage crisis involving Israeli athletes during the 1972 Munich Olympics in West Germany. The screenplay, written by Moritz Binder, has earned an Academy Award nomination for best original screenplay.

Binder joined Morning News anchors Christa Kurkjian and Joey Vergilis on Friday morning to discuss the film.

He spoke about the film’s unique visual storytelling, which confines the audience to the control room, showing the outside world solely through television screens.

“It was striking to us when we talked to the real Geoffrey Mason, the character played by John Magaro, that they never left the studio that day,” Binder said. “It felt almost like a submarine movie, with people trapped in a condensed space, having only the monitors as windows to the outside world.”

Mason was a 32-year-old producer working in the control room at the time of the hostage crisis. He was part of the broadcasting team that had to shift between Olympic coverage and the unfolding breaking news.

The challenge of balancing journalistic ethics with the need for compelling live coverage became a central theme in the film.

“When we asked Mason what he had asked himself that day, he said they didn’t have time for ethical questions—they just had to get it done,” Binder said. “It had never been done before, and we wanted the audience to feel that time pressure, that adrenaline rush.”

The film reunites director Tim Fehlbaum with composer Lorenz Dangel, whose score plays a crucial role in shaping the film’s tone.

“Lorenz described the score as a ‘worker’s score,’” Binder said. “It doesn’t dictate emotion before it happens. Instead, it builds that ticking clock feeling, offering small moments of breath and emotion where needed.”

When asked about the most difficult scene to write, Binder pointed to the final exchange between Magaro’s Mason and Marianne Gebhardt, a fictional German translator played by Leonie Benesch.

“I have to give a shoutout to those two actors because they really brought that scene to life,” Binder said. “It didn’t feel scripted—it felt real.”

Screenwriter and director Tim Fehlbaum will be in Santa Barbara on Saturday for the screenwriters’ panel at the film festival.

September 5 is available on Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube and in select theaters.