Kurt's art teacher, played by Oliver Masucci, is modeled on artist Joseph Beuys, the head of sculpture at the Kunstakadamie in Dusseldorf during the early '60s, at the time Gerhard Richter first enrolled.
While a fictional story, the film was inspired by the life of German painter Gerhard Richter and specifically an article about him by investigative reporter Jürgen Schreiber. Richter, when asked to comment on the film by the German press, said he had not seen the film, but he found the trailer too "reißerisch", or thriller-like. Later commenting on the material he had supplied to writer/director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck in interviews, Gerhard Richter told The New Yorker: "I gave him something in writing stating that he was explicitly not allowed to use or publish either my name or any of my paintings. He reassured me to respect my wishes. But in reality, he has done everything to link my name to his movie, and the press was helping him to the best of its ability. Fortunately, the most important newspapers here reviewed his concoction very skeptically and critically. Nevertheless, he managed to abuse and grossly distort my biography!"
One of three foreign language films to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography in the same year, the other two being Roma (2018) and Cold War (2018). This is the first time in Oscar history that three out of the five nominees were foreign films. All three films were also nominated for Best Foreign Language Film.
Cinematographer Caleb Deschanel was the only crew member who didn't speak German. He memorized an English translation of the script, so was able to understand the motivations and performances of the actors, despite not knowing exactly what they were saying.
When Kurt and his aunt visit the Degenerate Art Exhibition at the beginning of the film, Kurt is mesmerized by a statue: The Girl with Blue Hair, by German sculptor Eugen Hoffmann.