Such cerebral, stealthily political dramas have made Petzold an auteur’s auteur, beloved by the likes of Claire Denis and Brady Corbet. (In 2023, the Times hailed him, a bit backhandedly, as “the best German filmmaker you’ve never heard of.”) Twenty years after “The State I Am In,” Petzold returned to Venice not as a competitor but as a jury member. He was presented, somewhat ridiculously, with the “Women in Cinema” award, for his sensitive, varied, and often difficult portrayals of the opposite sex.journey-inline-newsletterinline-newsletter