Oscars history for late Manchester Professor Martin Amis

The Zone of Interest, based on the novel penned by late University of Manchester creative writing Professor Martin Amis, made Oscars history as the first British film to land ‘Best International Film’.

Filmed in the German language, the movie is a UK/Poland co-production directed by Jonathan Glazer which deals with the day-to-day life of Nazi Commandant Rudolf Höss and his wife Hedwig as they go about building their dream home next to Auschwitz. The film also picked up the award for ‘Best Sound’, upsetting favourites ‘Oppenheimer’ to the title.

Amis joined the Centre for New Writing in 2007 to take up his first teaching post at The University of Manchester. 

Famous for a series of novels including his London Trilogy, Martin was highlighted by The Times as one of the 50 greatest British novelists of the late 20th Century. He stepped aside from his teaching post in 2011. Martin passed away from cancer in May 2023 aged 73.

Martin’s The Zone of Interest was published in 2014 and was Martin’s fourteenth novel to be published. The Oscar-winning film of the same name is a loose adaptation of the novel.