8 Short Docs & 63 Foreign Films Advance Toward Oscar

Ethan McCord's request to see a mental health professional after a terrible scene of carnage from which he rescued two children, was ridiculed by his superior officer. "Incident in New Baghdad"AMPAS has announced the documentary short finalists, eight of them to be precise which will then be whittled down to five, four or three lucky nominees, so as to make either three, four, or five of these finalists feel like absolute shite on Tuesday January 24th.

THE FINALISTS (links go to official sites if we could find)

• The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement 
  (civil rights doc about a barber and barbershop which was a civil rights hub)
• God Is the Bigger Elvis
  (37 minutes)
• In Tahrir Square: 18 Days of Egypt’s Unfinished Revolution
  (38 minutes)
• Incident in New Baghdad
  (Iraq War and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)
• Pipe Dreams
  (Environmental doc about a tar pipeline set to cross the largest fresh water resource) 
• Saving Face
  (About a plastic surgeon helping acid attack victims in Pakistan. Strangely the company's site has not been updated since March despite this big Oscar news!?!) 
• The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom
  (Described as "a stunning visual poem about the ephemeral nature of life and the healing power of Japan's most beloved flower") 
• Witness

It is my humble opinion that "finalist" lists should always be at least double the amount of actual nominees, so that misery can love its company and not feel like the only girl in the room not invited to the dance.

Who can convince the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to change their unstable cruel ways? Categories should be set in stone: five nominees or three. Finalist lists, when necessary, ought to be double that. Five or Three should be the only Two options for shortlists for the great good of spreadsheets, statistical percentages, charts and the mental health of pundits everywhere or at least this pundit right here.

Nevertheless AMPAS continues with their "we might do this / we might do that" keep-you-on-your-toes ways. 

In much bigger news Oscar has also finally released the Official List of Best Foreign Language Film contenders. It's sixty-three wide this year. If you or anyone you know cares about this category, you'll want to check out The Film Experience's Beautiful Foreign Film Oscar Charts and please do share them with your friends. You can peruse the entire category visually instead of just reading this boring list of as-yet-meaningless names.

But we'll include the list here as well for SEO purposes. If the titles are in bold they're rather high profile as these things go, but keep in mind that high profile doesn't always equate with "future nominee" status.

The 2011 submissions are:

• Albania, "Amnesty," Bujar Alimani

• Argentina, "Aballay," Fernando Spiner

• Austria, "Breathing," Karl Markovics

• Belgium, "Bullhead," Michael R. Roskam

• Bosnia and Herzegovina,"Belvedere," Ahmed Imamovic

• Brazil, "Elite Squad: The Enemy Within," José Padilha

• Bulgaria, "Tilt," Viktor Chouchkov, Jr.

• Canada, "Monsieur Lazhar," Philippe Falardeau

• Chile, "Violeta Went to Heaven," Andrés Wood

• China, "The Flowers of War," Zhang Yimou (previous posts)

• Colombia, "The Colors of the Mountain," Carlos César Arbeláez

• Croatia, "72 Days," Danilo Serbedzija

• Cuba, "Havanastation," Ian Padrón

• Czech Republic,"Alois Nebel," Tomás Lunák (Amir's review)

• Denmark, "Superclásico," Ole Christian Madsen

• Dominican Republic,"Love Child," Leticia Tonos

• Egypt, "Lust," Khaled el Hagar

• Estonia, "Letters to Angel," Sulev Keedus

• Finland, "Le Havre," Aki Kaurismäki

• France, "Declaration of War," Valérie Donzelli (previous post)

• Georgia, "Chantrapas," Otar Iosseliani

• Germany, "Pina," Wim Wenders (previous posts)

• Greece, "Attenberg," Athina Rachel Tsangari

• Hong Kong, "A Simple Life," Ann Hui (previous posts)

• Hungary, "The Turin Horse," Béla Tarr (previous posts)

• Iceland, "Volcano," Rúnar Rúnarsson

• India, "Abu, Son of Adam," Salim Ahamed

• Indonesia, "Under the Protection of Ka'Bah," Hanny R. Saputra

• Iran, "A Separation," Asghar Farhadi (Nathaniel's review)

• Ireland, "As If I Am Not There," Juanita Wilson

• Israel, "Footnote," Joseph Cedar, director;

• Italy, "Terraferma," Emanuele Crialese

• Japan, "Postcard," Kaneto Shindo

• Kazakhstan, "Returning to the ‘A,’" Egor Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky

• Lebanon, "Where Do We Go Now?" Nadine Labaki (previous posts)

• Lithuania, "Back to Your Arms," Kristijonas Vildziunas

• Macedonia, "Punk Is Not Dead," Vladimir Blazevski

• Mexico, "Miss Bala," Gerardo Naranjo (Michael's NYFF review, Nathaniel's take)

• Morocco, "Omar Killed Me," Roschdy Zem

• Netherlands, "Sonny Boy," Maria Peters

• New Zealand,"The Orator," Tusi Tamasese

• Norway, "Happy, Happy," Anne Sewitsky (previous post)

• Peru, "October," Diego Vega and Daniel Vega

• Philippines, "The Woman in the Septic Tank," Marlon N. Rivera (previous post)

• Poland, "In Darkness," Agnieszka Holland

• Portugal, "José and Pilar," Miguel Gonçalves Mendes

• Romania, "Morgen," Marian Crisan

• Russia, "Burnt by the Sun 2: The Citadel," Nikita Mikhalkov

• Serbia, "Montevideo: Taste of a Dream," Dragan Bjelogrlić

• Singapore, "Tatsumi," Eric Khoo, director;

• Slovak Republic,"Gypsy," Martin Sulík

• South Africa,"Beauty," Oliver Hermanus

• South Korea,"The Front Line," Jang Hun

• Spain, "Black Bread," Agusti Villaronga (previous posts)

• Sweden, "Beyond," Pernilla August

• Switzerland, "Summer Games," Rolando Colla

• Taiwan, "Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale," Wei Te-sheng

• Thailand, "Kon Khon," Sarunyu Wongkrachang

• Turkey, "Once upon a Time in Anatolia," Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Amir's review)

• United Kingdom,"Patagonia," Marc Evans

• Uruguay, "The Silent House," Gustavo Hernández (previous post)

• Venezuela, "Rumble of the Stones," Alejandro Bellame Palacios

• Vietnam, "The Prince and the Pagoda Boy," Luu Trong Ninh

Comments

[joy]

Check out the trailer of Japan's entry "Postcard", maybe a long shot, but a pretty touching film.

http://movie.mtime.com/139627/trailer/32206.html

[Vico]

Very nice, thanks for sharing. rental mobil jakarta

[Eli]

LoL, "only girl standing in the corner while everyone dances". I thought the same thing. Nobody puts baby in the corner - well, except AMPAS...

[Dylan E]

Can I just speak up as (I imagine) one of the few readers who's seen "Patagonia" - it's a seriously excellent film. The cinematography is non-stop breathtaking, and Nia Roberts' lead is the single greatest performance of the past two years. I wouldn't predict it right now because it'll be so hard to get a relatively quiet welsh/spanish film like that noticed amid all these contenders, but if it does get seen, expect it to hit in a big way. Watch out for it if you get the chance to see it. ;)