Poster © Constantin Film. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
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GenreFeature film
RatedR
Runtime1 hr 35 mins
ReleasedJanuary 9, 2025
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorTim Fehlbaum
StarringPeter Sarsgaard, John Magaro, Ben Chaplin
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September 5 (2024)
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| 🎫Get Tickets | ✎Edit History |
| iIMDb Profile | %Rotten Tomatoes |
| WWikipedia | LLetterboxd |
| TTMDB | +Add to Top 8 |
| September 5's Details | |
| Genre | Feature film |
| Rated | R |
| Released | 08/29/2024 (Venice); 01/09/2025 (Germany) |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 1 hr 35 mins |
| Budget | Not reported |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Country | Germany |
| Language | English, German |
| September 5's Interests | |
| General | Control rooms, reel-to-reel tape, satellite time, police radio, the weight of going live. |
| Music | Lorenz Dangel |
| Movies | Spotlight (2015). Another newsroom, another story too big to get wrong. |
| Television | The Newsroom. Fictional, but the pressure of going live is very real. |
| Heroes | Marianne Gebhardt, the translator. Without her, the room hears nothing. |
| September 5's Crew | |
| Director | Tim Fehlbaum |
| Writers | Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum, Alex David |
| Producers | Philipp Trauer, Thomas Wöbke, Tim Fehlbaum, Sean Penn, John Ira Palmer, John Wildermuth, Mark Nolting |
| Cinematography | Markus Förderer |
| Music | Lorenz Dangel |
| Edited By | Hansjörg Weißbrich |
| Production | BerghausWöbke Filmproduktion, Projected Picture Works, Constantin Film, ERF Edgar Reitz Filmproduktion |
| Distributed By | Constantin Film (Germany, Austria and Switzerland), Paramount Pictures (International) |
Ninety-five minutes, almost all of it inside one cramped TV control room, which is the film’s great strength and its one blind spot. It’s Munich, 1972, and the ABC Sports crew is cruising through medal swims when gunfire in the Olympic Village turns their sports broadcast into live coverage of a hostage crisis. John Magaro plays Geoffrey Mason, the young producer suddenly running world news; Peter Sarsgaard plays network boss Roone Arledge; Ben Chaplin plays Marvin Bader, the one voice reminding everyone these are real lives. Leonie Benesch plays Marianne, the German translator decoding police radio for the crew. Tim Fehlbaum keeps it tense and procedural, and its questions about chasing a story still sting. Because we never leave the room, though, the athletes themselves stay mostly offscreen. Critics gave it 92%, and audiences agreed. An 8.3 because the film is a tight, sober look at what live news costs. $12.46 says this changes how you read the next breaking news alert on your phone.
What works: The control room tension never lets up, and Ben Chaplin and Leonie Benesch give the crew its conscience.
What doesn’t: Keeping the camera inside the studio means the hostages and their families stay mostly offscreen, and their absence is felt.
Who it’s for: People who care how the news gets made, and anyone who has watched breaking coverage and wondered who decides what airs.
Spoilers
The crew goes on air with an early report that the hostages were freed, then learns from a source that the rescue failed and all of them were killed. Mason has Jim McKay correct the broadcast, and the last image is Mason alone in front of a board of the victims’ photos.
Munich, 1972. The ABC Sports crew is having a smooth Olympics, all medal races and swimming highlights, with Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro) running the control room and network chief Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard) calling the shots. Then shots ring out across the Olympic Village in the dark, and members of the Israeli team are taken hostage. A sports crew is suddenly covering world news, live, with German translator Marianne Gebhardt (Leonie Benesch) decoding police radio and operations head Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin) chasing every lead. Tim Fehlbaum directs. Ninety-four minutes, one control room, choices with no easy answers.
Anyone who works in news. Get it right before you get it first.
| Peter Sarsgaard | Roone Arledge |
| John Magaro | Geoffrey Mason |
| Ben Chaplin | Marvin Bader |
| Leonie Benesch | Marianne Gebhardt |
| Zinedine Soualem | Jacques Lesgards |
| Georgina Rich | Gladys Deist |
| Corey Johnson | Hank Hanson |
| Marcus Rutherford | Carter Jeffrey |
| Daniel Adeosun | Gary Slaughter |
| Benjamin Walker | Peter Jennings |
| Rony Herman | David Berger |
| Paul Böhme | Masked Man / German Athlete |
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 19 October 2026 DataBot +440 Numbers refreshed: Worldwide box office $8.2M; Domestic box office $2.5M; Opening weekend $81K; profit note now waits on a budget; Rotten Tomatoes 92%; box office chart updated; Rotten Tomatoes critics 92% (212 reviews); Metacritic 76 / 100; Rotten Tomatoes audience 89% (250+ verified ratings); IMDb users 7.1 / 10 (39,201 votes); movie.guru score 8.2.
- (cur | prev) 12:00, 19 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.