Toni Erdmann was a surprising and phenomenal success worldwide. The film won first prizes at numerous festivals, was nominated for an Oscar, and was almost unanimously praised by critics. What did director, writer, and co-producer Maren Ade do right, or to put it another way: How did the hype that the film undoubtedly generated come about? In this book, five authors attempt to answer these questions. First, Georg Seesslen discusses what a hype actually is, what characterizes it, and how it comes about. Philipp Bovermann, Sofia Glasl, and Maximilian Sippenauer then explore the influence of the media in this success process and examine the specific political and social circumstances that caused the Toni Erdmann hype. Lastly, the book addresses the film's aesthetic concept: How bourgeois is the story?.