Development Originally titled
1949, director
Paweł Pawlikowski co-wrote the film's screenplay with
Hendrik Handloegten. The film marks the first project under a three-year co-production, financing, and distribution agreement between
Mubi and Our Films. In June 2025,
Arte France Cinéma was announced as a co-producer of the film. In February 2025, the film was awarded a grant of €200,000 by the . Later that year, it was awarded a grant of €1.42 million by the
Polish Film Institute and €150,000 from
Eurimages. It also received funding from the
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.
Casting Hanns Zischler,
Sandra Hüller,
August Diehl,
Anna Madeley,
Devid Striesow, and
Theo Trebs were announced as cast members on 19 August 2025. In November 2025,
Joanna Kulig announced that she had taken part in the film, marking her fourth collaboration with Pawlikowski.
Filming Łukasz Żal served as the film's cinematographer, having previously shot Pawlikowski's films
Ida (2013) and
Cold War (2018). Like
Ida and
Cold War, the film was shot in black-and-white.
Principal photography began in
Legnica on 13 August 2025. Later that month, filming moved to
Bielsko-Biała and
Cieszyn. In early September, filming briefly took place in
Warsaw before returning to Legnica. On 30 September, filming took place in
Weimar, specifically at the
Deutsches Nationaltheater und Staatskapelle Weimar and in
Park an der Ilm. In early October, filming began at the in
Wrocław. Later that month, filming took place at in
Wałbrzych. Filming was completed by mid-December 2025, after 38 days of shooting. To recreate the
Thomas Mann House in
Los Angeles, set designers Marcel Sławiński and studied blueprints, photos, and video footage of the home. Furniture and props were sourced from Germany for authenticity. Pawlikowski also wanted the villa to be filled with books and art to emphasize "the quintessence of [Mann's] world: culture, literature, music." Costume designer , who had worked with Pawlikowski on
Ida and
Cold War, recreated 1940s fashion for the film, which required her to emphasize the style differences between
West and
East Germany, as well as the United States. While the costumes for the main characters were custom-made, costumes for extras were sourced from warehouses in
Berlin,
Łódź, and
Warsaw. ==Release==