SEPTEMBER 5 received one nominations at the 2025 Academy Awards. The film was recognized for Best Original Screenplay (Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum, and Alex David). It did not win any Oscars.

SEPTEMBER 5 received one nominations at the 2025 Golden Globe Awards. The film was recognized for Best Motion Picture – Drama. It did not win any Golden Globes.

During the 1972 Munich Olympics, an American sports broadcasting team suddenly finds itself shifting from sports reporting to live coverage of the Israeli athletes being taken hostage, an event watched by an estimated one billion people worldwide. A film by Tim Fehlbaum, starring Peter Sarsgaard, John Magaro, Ben Chaplin, and Leonie Benesch.

During the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, ABC Sports president Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard) dramatizes Mark Spitz’s gold medal victory with an unconventional camera sequence: instead of the usual winner’s close-up, he first cuts to the devastated reaction of West German competitor Werner Lampe, before finally showing Spitz’s triumphant celebration with his parents.

Mark Spitz is an American competitive swimmer and nine-time Olympic champion. He is widely considered one of the greatest swimmers of all time.Between 1968 and 1972, Spitz secured nine Olympics gold medals, one silver, and one bronze. At the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, he made history by becoming the first athlete to win seven gold medals in a single Olympic Games, setting world records in each victory. His individual wins included the 100-meter and 200-meter freestyle, and the 100-meter and 200-meter butterfly. He also won gold as a member of the U.S. teams in the 400-meter and 800-meter freestyle relays and the 400-meter medley relay.

ABC Sports’ head of operations Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin) assigns young, ambitious producer Geoffrey “Geoff” Mason (John Magaro) to oversee the Olympics live broadcast schedule. When Marvin introduces Geoff to Roone, he explains that Geoff will be handling the live coverage while voicing concern about Roone’s plan to discuss the Holocaust during an upcoming live interview with Jewish athlete Mark Spitz, who set an all-time Olympic record by winning seven gold medals in a single Olympic Games.

While reviewing footage alone, Geoff receives a call from Kenneth Moore asking if he’s heard any gunshots. When Geoff says he hasn’t, Kenneth urges him to call if he hears anything suspicious. Concerned, Geoff leaves the room and runs into German translator Marianne Gebhardt (Leonie Benesch) and ABC Sports technical director Jacques Lesgards (Zinedine Soualem) in the hallway. After Geoff mentions Kenneth’s call about gunshots, Marianne reveals that she and Jacques had heard distant gunfire earlier. She quickly calls the German police, who confirm they’ve received multiple reports and are investigating.

Kenneth Clark Moore (Kenny Moore) was an American Olympic distance runner and journalist who competed in the marathon at the 1968 and 1972 Summer Olympics15. He finished fourth in the 1972 Summer Olympics held in Munich1358. In Munich, the Olympic marathon was run under the shadow of the terrorist massacre of Israeli athletes.

Marianne volunteers to walk to Bayerischer Rundfunk, public broadcasting station, to gather information in person. Halfway across the bridge, she radios Geoff with alarming news: she can see dozens of police cars converging on the Olympic Village, suggesting the gunshots came from within.

Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) is a public-service radio and television broadcaster based in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. An Olympic Village is a residential complex built or reassigned for the Olympic Games in or nearby the host city for the purpose of accommodating all of the delegations. Olympic Villages are usually located close to the Olympic Stadium within an Olympic Park. After the Games are over, the Olympic Village is typically sold or rented to the local population and turned into a new residential zone for the host city. After the Munich massacre at the 1972 Olympics, the Villages have been made extremely secure. Only athletes, trainers and officials are allowed to room at the Village, though family members and former Olympic athletes are allowed inside with proper checks. Press and media are also barred.

Realizing the situation has grown too serious for him to handle alone, Geoff decides to wake Bader and brief him on the developments. Meanwhile, Marianne arrives at Bayerischer Rundfunk and radios Geoff: the phones are ringing non-stop with incoming calls. She reports that her friend at the station has heard the gunshots were fired in the Israeli athletes’ apartments, with rumors of a hostage situation. While the identity of the hostage-takers remains unknown, she adds that Rundfunk will broadcast more details in their six o’clock news.

Bader orders Geoff to the control room to call Roone with urgent news: there’s an ongoing hostage situation in the Israeli quarters of the Olympic Village. Just then, German radio breaks in with an announcement that shots have been fired inside the Olympic Village. The broadcast adds that unconfirmed reports suggest the Israeli team may have been attacked by terrorists. The situation has escalated with new reports indicating that one, possibly two, Israeli athletes have been killed at the Olympic Village. Arab guerrillas, believed to be from Black September, are suspected of taking hostages.

The Black September conflict began on September 16, 1970, when King Hussein of Jordan launched a military campaign against Palestinian fedayeen (guerrilla fighters) who had gained significant power and influence in Jordan. The conflict resulted in thousands of Palestinian deaths and the expulsion of many fighters from Jordan, leading to a shift in the Palestinian resistance movement’s dynamics. In the aftermath of the Black September conflict, a militant faction known as the Black September Organization was formed in 1971. This group sought retribution against Jordanian authorities for their actions during the conflict and was responsible for several high-profile attacks, including the assassination of Jordan’s Prime Minister Wasfi Tal and the infamous Munich massacre during the 1972 Summer Olympics.

Seeing an opportunity for a compelling story, Roone takes charge, organizing the crew to shift their focus to cover the hostage crisis. He negotiates for more favorable time slots to broadcast live updates as the situation unfolds. Geoff suggests capturing a live shot by wheeling a studio camera to film the apartment building, which is within sight of the ABC studio. The ABC Sports team also creates forged athlete identification to allow crew member Gary Slaughter (Daniel Adeosun) access to the now-restricted Olympic Village. However, Roone points out that simply aiming the camera at the building won’t engage viewers unless they know who is inside. He instructs Geoff to gather the identities and backgrounds of every hostage to create a gripping and emotionally resonant narrative for the audience.

Directed by Swiss filmmaker Tim Fehlbaum from a screenplay he cowrote with Moritz Binder and Alex David, SEPTEMBER 5 is a historical drama thriller that revisits the 1972 Munich massacre through the lens of the ABC Sports crew and their groundbreaking coverage of the events.

The film is a masterclass in storytelling, maintaining a gripping narrative as the tension steadily builds from start to finish. Remarkably, it achieves this without relying on visceral or graphic imagery. Instead, the horror is conveyed through the sound of distant gunshots and fleeting flashes of light from the shootings. Arguably one of the finest and most thrilling films ever made, SEPTEMBER 5 demonstrates the power of restraint and perspective in crafting an unforgettable cinematic experience.

September 5, 1972 was the first time an act of terrorism was broadcast live around the world. 900 million people were watching.

SEPTEMBER 5 premiered at Biennale di Venezia on 29 August 2024. The film had a limited theatrical release in the United States on 13 December 2024 before expanding nationwide on 17 January 2025.

SEPTEMBER 5 Director Tim Fehlbaum on Making a Terrorist Movie That’s Also About You
“I was surprised how many people didn’t know what happened on that day, or just vaguely knew it. But I was also surprised that what everybody seemed to know was that black-and-white image of that masked person on the balcony. And this, of course, says something about one of the topics of our film — the power of images.” The events of September 5, 1972 have lingered with director Tim Fehlbaum since the start of his career: Studying film in Munich, he hung out and shot films in a neighborhood that was the site of one of history’s most notorious terror attacks.

How ‘SEPTEMBER 5’ Director Tim Fehlbaum Drew ‘Strength From a Limitation’
Fehlbaum related that as a filmmaker, he also liked the challenge of telling the story from the control room. “I like movies that draw strength from a limitation,” he said, noting that production design meticulously researched and built what was effectively a working period control room as a set, so that the actors could actually see and respond to the events as they appeared on their monitors. Led by DP Markus Förderer, the scenes were lensed largely handheld in long takes “following it as if we ourselves would be a broadcast team in that room, observing.” This, he adds, was followed by the “crucial” work of editor Hansjörg Weißbrich.

SEPTEMBER 5 director Tim Fehlbaum opens up on ‘crucial’ factor that could have derailed movie
“If we don’t get McKay we don’t have to do the project at all.” That was the stance of director Tim Fehlbaum in a heated moment during pre-production on his Golden Globe-nominated movie September 5. But Fehlbaum wasn’t talking about getting some big name actor to help make the movie, he was instead referring to archival footage of legendary sports journalist Jim McKay. While he admits his statement of getting the McKay footage or calling off the movie was a bit dramatic, he was thrilled he had a group of producers that felt the same way.