Three Reasons Why People Ought to Stop Bitching About the Foreign Film Race and Just Appreciate The Movies
Saturday, September 21, 2013 at 2:34PM There are now 38 Official Submissions for Oscar's Foreign Language Film race, one of The Film Experience's favorite categories. Which means there are now undoubtedly about 38,000 bitchy articles lodged around the web and print... many of them undoubtedly focused on Blue is the Warmest Color, due to its high profile both from content (lesbian sex!) and prestige (Cannes winner).
the new US poster. It's a beauty
I am exhausted by the griping each year about this category. I really am. And often from people who should know better. The grumbling over this oft divisive category reminds me of how Oscar fans like to say...
I would have nominated so and so 12 times with 3 wins!"
...without ever thinking it all the way through and realizing who they'd have to snub to be so crazy generous with one particular pet. People will only be satisfied with the best foreign film race when it... no, no. They won't ever be satisfied.
I should elaborate. Herewith 3 annual complaints that bug the s*** out of me... and I've been giving ample attention to this category long before every other site on the internet deemed it worthy of noting each "official submission!" press release.
1. The Eligibility Rules are "Arbitrary" And Ridiculous
Recently while reading this report at In Contention of Deadline's interview with Wild Bunch co-founder I became quite angry reading this passage:
There was never any question for us to modify in any way our release strategy to legitimize the stupidity of the Oscar rules," he says. "Should we risk our strategy for France for a Foreign Language Film Oscar which doesn’t add anything to a Palme d’Or?" He continues: "[The rules are] unique, specific and make no sense. At the same time, no one cares about this category. We’re aiming for ... all categories, the only ones that count.”
This statement is problematic on any number of levels but it's also blatant self sabotage or, worse, disingenuous stealth campaigning.
Why would someone who works in the distribution of foreign language films CONTRIBUTE to the marginalization of foreign language films by saying that "no one cares". As someone who cares and has cared for a very long time I find this absolutely infuriating. Furthermore how are rules for this category supposed to avoid being "unique and specific". There is no "stupidity" involved in the Academy having rules about release date eligibility. You have to have organizational principles in order to have an annual competition at all. And you have to have them for every category. Specialized categories require even more careful attention to how something should qualify. It's the nature of the beast. To me this is just the powers behind Blue is the Warmest Color feeling entitled to do whatever the hell they want due to their acclaim. Instead of quietly giving the film a one week qualifying run in France (as most countries do for their prize gem film if they plan to release it later) or just releasing it instead of withholding it from the French for 5 months after its Palme D'Or win when the Academy's rules about timing of release are clear. My guess is that this is just disingenuous campaigning since they can milk a perceived but non-existent "snub" (you can't be snubbed if you aren't eligible) for nomination traction in other categories, a way of forcing AMPAS to take notice of a great film. They're probably thinking about the groundswell of support for films like Talk to Her or Three Colors Red, both of which could not compete in the foreign language category but not, and this is the key point, from any fault of their own! That's something that the people behind Blue Is cannot claim.
I'm not trying to diss Blue is the Warmest Color but I'm angry that a distributor would be this dismissive of a category that has, for a very long time, done a lot to boost awareness of international cinema for US audiences, who contantly need that awareness boosted since they can be very tunnel visioned when it comes to movies.
2. It's Stupid That ____ Only Gets To Submit 1 Film!
The suggestion that "hot" countries (i.e. whichever country's cinema the critics are wild about that year/decade) or country's with prolific and/or healthy film industries like India, France or China (to name three from the many) ought to be able to submit more films than countries who only have one movie to submit or are choosing between their only, say, four, is a perennial one. But I've yet to hear a solution to the problem that makes any kind of sense. And if you don't have a solution to the problem, stop bitching about the problem.
If Oscar allowed for unlimited entries from each country, how would the voting even be possible? If they allowed for submissions based on percentage of the countries filmic output who would police the numbers and if they allowed multiple entries from France wouldn't France just own the category every year? And THEN the complaint (from the same people) would be about how other countries don't stand a chance and how can they justify their Francophilia ?!? FREEDOM FRIES. BLARGH.
The only solution I've ever heard to this problem was suggested by me (ahem) and it's this: Let foreign language films which are released in US theaters during the calendar year ALSO compete for this category since they're eligible for all the others due to the US release. Perhaps set up a separate committee in charge of winnowing that pool of films down and then you have your 65 standard submissions as well as the best of the lot that hit theaters... so therefore France and India and other prolific countries would have more than one opportunity.
3. What About Immigrant Stories? It's Awful That A Film Has To Be In the Country's Native Tongue To Qua
Oh wait. They fixed this rule some time ago. Immigrant and multi-national stories are no longer problem areas since 'not-in-English' is enough to qualify now instead of claiming that the language spoken also has to be indigenous to the country its representing. For instance this year we have three films with ties to The Philippines (a country that's never had a nominated film) since The Philippines, the UK, and Singapore have all submitted movies about Filippinos.
The Philippines are represented in 3 submissions: Transit, Ilo Ilo, and Metro Manila
See, for as much as we'd like AMPAS to quit tinkering with things that aren't broken (like the Best Picture category or that dumb moment some years back when they split Original Score into two separate categories), they actually do tinker with this category's rules in useful ways, often based on valid criticisms. Things have been much better in terms of wildly acclaimed films getting nominated for Best Foreign Language Film since they introduced the Executive Committee. The Academy's Foreign Film lineups of late and their two most recent winners (Amour, A Separation ... both masterpieces, which is more than the most recent "Best Pictures" can claim) the past few years have been outstanding, so people need to take a deep breath and give credit where it's due for once.
In addition to improvements in the quality of the nominees and winners, far fewer films have been declared ineligible due to not being 'native' enough since they loosened up about what constitutes, say, a Swiss film as opposed to a German one (for example).
So by all means keep bitching, but only if the criticism is constructive.
See Also...
38 OFFICIAL SUBMISSIONS ON THE OSCAR CHARTS
Click the link for posters, trailers, and info about each film that's competing including recent additions like Saudia Arabia's Wadjda, Mexico's Heli, Latvia's Mother I Love You, Brazil's Neighboring Sounds, and Croatia's Halima's Path. We're over halfway to our complete final competition list which usually ends about 65 films wide. Stay tuned for the rest and click around and share the charts in the meantime.
Which films do you think will rise up from the collective din?
Reader Comments (45)
Well said! With Blue, I was bugged by the producer calling the foreign film category stupid, but also, earlier, with people calling Wild Bunch stupid for not budging on their release date. It's their prerogative to decide what strategy works for them and whether an foreign film nomination has value. I was disappointed to hear him defend his strategy by putting down one of the most important categories.
Having that category helps put great films in the mix for other awards. If A Separation wasn't in the Oscar conversation for foreign film, it might not have been in the conversation at all, so it's chances of getting the screenplay nom would have been slimmer, for instance.
Btw, this is India's submission and everyone here is already wondering why "The Lunchbox" (which has already been well-received on the festival circuit and has a solid studio/distributor behind it) wasn't picked.
http://www.rediff.com/movies/report/the-good-road-nominated-as-indias-entry-for-oscars/20130921.htm
I am not sure I second the lack of cultural ties of certain films with their submitting countries, just saying. Every movie today gets money from a lot of countries, but does that make a film to belong to a certain country where part of the money comes from?
I think every forign movie release in US should be eligible, no matter what movie thier countries submit.
I think you forgot the biggest complain of all Oscar bloggers, Foreign Language-focused or not: That s/he doesn't get to unilaterally run the competition.
In the Foreign Language category, where the process involves not only cuts to 5 nominees and an ultimate winner, but also national selections and a nine-wide short list, the bitching is only amplified. If as many people interested in the Oscars as a whole were interested in this category, the Oscarsphere might well implode!
As for what will get in, this year seems kinda quiet from the usual suspects so I'm currently predicting the submissions from Chile, Romania, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore, as well as the likely submission from Denmark. I'm curious what will happen to Australia and Brazil, and who Canada and Norway will choose.
And if Wadjda is ruled ineligible because its country prohibits cinemas, you can bet that the Oscarazzi will go crazy.
The campaign for Blue Is The Warmest Color has got to be running maybe the most sensational early game I've ever seen. I mean one week it's winning the Palme, and the next the author calls it porn. It premieres at Telluride and the actresses stage a coup. It premieres in Toronto, the director fires back. It doesn't qualify for the French Oscar submission, Wild Bunch publicly denounces the Oscars. I mean, the middle school gossip girl that lives inside me is going wild at all the drama. This thing hasn't even premiered yet! What will they say next??
Of course the comment is ridiculous, but it's one that has been made in France year after year after year. But I think what he's getting at is not all that different from what is advocated in this post: Oscar voters need to stop seeing Foreign Film as a depository, and rather as a well that should inform all their decisions. Just because a country can only submit one film doesn't absolve you from ignoring every other film produced there.
Oh and I'd like to add that what's even more silly about the distributor's remarks is that it is no guarantee that Blue Is The Warmest Color would have been chosen as France's submission. Sure it won the Palme, but Kechiche is not a native Frenchman, and despite huge critical and awards success in France, they have yet to select one of his films as an Oscar submission. The film was made out of compliance with France's production laws, and what's more, it is not to the general taste of the Academy. Even if the Oscars didn't have a silly timeline, who's to say the film would have been chosen?
I agree with you, especially with your 2nd point. If they opened it up, it would most definitely become Best French Film almost every time.
I love your suggestion by the way. It makes a lot of sense, since those foreign films released in US theaters are eligible for other Oscars anyway. I hope AMPAS considers this!
@Evan Wadjda had special screenings at the US and German embassies in Saudi Arabia, so it already met that requirement.
great points on this post.
I'm not sure I totally understood the story, but now I'm sort of rooting against "blue ...". also tired of all the talk about the "lesbian sex". and beginning to doubt the performances are all that's been raved about it (maybe "sexually dangerous" is cannes-'bait', not unlike deglaming for oscars).
I didn't know they changed the native language rule. That's a good change.
I guess I don't follow Best Foreign Language Film enough to see people complain like this. The last time I heard major complaints was when The Lives of Others won over Pan's Labyrinth. Before that, it was when Amelie didn't win anything.
Wait, that's not true. I heard a lot of complaints about Dogtooth being nominated over anything else. Being a cruel, dark comedy (arguably a horror film) often does that to awards-followers.
I look at the short list as a guide to more films I should try to see if they become available in America. Same with Documentary.
I think they should change the best foreign language category into best foreign film or foreign production to include British, Canadian, Australian and other foreign films that are in English. also I think that number of nominees should be expanded to 10 to include more films.
@brace Why would you want English films in a Best Foreign Language film category?? That's what the general Oscars are for!
All they need is to be released in US theaters and they'll be in the mix if the voters love them enough (The King's Speech, Slumdog Millionaire, The Artist).
@ Robert G: Not only was that rule changed, that rule-change already produced a winner. Amour won Best Foreign Language Film for Austria, even though the film is in French (not Austria's native language). And, apparently this year the Phillipines is submitting a film that is mostly in Hebrew (just saw the trailer, the film Transit looks really good and I love hearing Hebrew).....
Richter Scale, I knew that about Amour and still didn't realize the rule had changed.
Blue... cannot come out soon enough, I swear to god, this movie's release gets more and more 'interesting' every week. I just want people to see the movie and let it speak for itself finally.
I agree with all of this, basically. The head of IFC films is also on record saying he's annoyed since his company has both BLUE and LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON, which was set to be released in February off of the back of a likely Oscar nod and now is in limbo land.
I think most people that complain just don't really get the Oscars in general. Yes, we'd all like to live in a world where a film like BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOUR can compete on equal footing with, say, 12 YEARS A SLAVE or AUGUST OSAGE COUNTY, but audiences and distributors were putting foreign language titles into their own marginalised ghetto long before the Oscars were.
Hello, Nathaniel. Just a small remark: Time of the Wind wasn't released yet, maybe next year!
Hong Kong's submission is now narrow down to Wong Kar-Wai's The Master and the MMA drama Unbeatable (the one you just watched in TIFF). News us that they are gonna make the decision next week.
I don't know if the remarks from the 'Blue' studio are a smart strategy, but I think they're just trying to make a statement about the importance that should be given to foreign films, and how we should see them as equals to the American films that end up being nominated for Best Picture -which are often inferior. But it's undeniable how much an Oscar nomination (which the movie was almost sure to get, even considering how unpredictable the category can be) would end up helping the film with international audiences. We might know that Blue wasn't elegible, but we spend hours online talking and reading about film. The general public do not.
Also, now that we're talking about this category... WHO GETS TO KEEP THE OSCAR? I've always wanted to know that. Does the director take it home or is it the winning country's property and they put it on display or something?
PJ -- Oh man I was hoping The Grandmaster would be a done deal. As much as Unbeatable is such a local success, I don't think it has chance for an Oscar nomination.
People around the internet seem to think that Exarchopoulos has a shot at a nomination, but you're not one of them, are you?
Kin, I would think they will select The Grandmaster too, but only because it's epic scale, it's martial art (Oscar loves Asian movie best then it's martial art, I can never tell why), it's Wong Kar-Wai, it's starring well-known names like Tony Leong and Zhang Zi-Yi. In short, it's sole purpose of existence is to win award (seriously, haven't we have enough Yip Mun movies and TV series already?). Unbeatable, on the other hand, totally pale in comparison.
Having said that, I still think The Grandmaster is actually a bad movie, or at least worse movie than Unbeatable. I know a country should be selecting a movie based on it's likelihood to get nom and it's totally fair to do so, but shouldn't they pick something that can also represent their country the most? On that account, the local success of Unbeatable should triumph over the so-so performance of The Grandmaster, right? (Well, actually I'm not from Hong Kong so I wouldn't be so sure).
However, there's still hope for Unbeatable. Didn't Hong Kong submit a contemporary drama Life Without Principle last year too?
Nathaniel, just for correction.
The Philippines had 9 other films shortlisted, not 7. The nine are:
Thy Womb (dir. Brillante Mendoza), On the Job (dir. Erik Matti), The Bit Player (dir. Jeffrey Jeturian), El Presidente (dir. Mark Meily), Voices (dir. Ellen Ongkeko-Marfil), Tuhog (rough translation Impaled) (dir. Veronica Velasco), Supremo (dir. Richard Somes), Tiktik: The Aswang Chronicles (dir. Erik Matti), and Dance of the Steelbars (dir. Cesar Apolinario and Marnie Manicad).
The selection of Transit itself is an issue here in the Philippines because Thy Womb and On the Job are more internationally known film.
Interesting theory about them milking the non-existent snub to get into other categories. Surely its only real bet is for Adele, though?
I would agree with you that people need to stop bitching if there wasn't something fundamentally wrong with the Executive Committee process of nominating. If they don't trust the voters to nominate worthwhile films, then why are they deciding any part of the process at all? This is the only category where they aim to include acclaimed films above populist ones, which is admirable and allows for more interesting nominees, but I think there should be uniformity across all categories.
Cal -- but other categories aren't working from such a humongous load of unscreenable movies (if they didn't have this elaborate system in place). They have to do this category differently than the others. There's no other workable option than for it to have a complicated voting process. Otherwise all you're doing is nominating the 5 foreign films in any given year that opened in theaters in the us that people have heard of. I dont think that's a preferable system.
"Let foreign language films which are released in US theaters during the calendar year ALSO compete for this category since they're eligible for all the others"
That seems about half-right, but why preserve this submission silliness at all? It seems to me that the cream usually rises to the top and gets U.S. distribution on its own merits, why not just have these movies that U.S. audiences have actually had a chance to see fight it out and earn their own buzz? That's how every other category seems to work. It would also help encourage the studios to actually bring these movies stateside a lot faster and actually support them in order to help build a following instead of holding them back until February or March in some futile hope of having gotten an Oscar nod by then.
MJS -- you may have a point there.
So far I've seen Borgman (The Netherlands), La Grande Bellezza (Italy), Jagten (Denmark), Honeymoon (Czech Republic), Wadja (Saoudi Arabia), Circles (Serbia), Halima's Path (Croatia) and An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker (Bosnia) of those 38. I think and hope the first three will be on the short list. And in all honesty I enjoyed all eight of those.
I think the big problem with MJS's suggestion is that then it becomes about who has luck in acquiring distribution AND a distributor that can market and campaign for a movie enough to get noticed. Looking purely at my home country's (Australia) films, films like TEN CANOES, SAMSON & DELILAH and now THE ROCKET were acquired and released by such tiny distributors and made a pittance (THE ROCKET isn't out yet, but I suspect they'll wait to see how the film does with the Oscars). There's no way they'd be able to compete. And, really, do we trust the Academy enough to have seen enough of the year's eligible foreign films to put together a roster of nominees that wasn't just whatever the highest grossers were. And furthermore, many of these foreign language films make as much money as they do because of the Oscar nomination (hence the February/March releases). Many of these films don't do well not for want of support by their distributors who do what they can with their resources, but because many of their targeted audience are getting conditioned to not like anything foreign or arty or are waiting for home entertainment.
Do we ever think something as radical as DOGTOOTH or as bizarre as THE MILK OF SORROW would have become nominees without national selections? Hardly. And if nothing else, at least we've all heard of these films now as opposed to waiting for a high profile festival or entrepreneurial distributor to get their hands on them and release them.
1. How much should a French distributor care and structure their local release around the oscars? France has such a healthy national cinema, in part because they're willing to support it first.
2. This whole idea about the foreign film category, though, is so fundamentally flawed. I'd argue that it makes more sense to scrap it than try to make it work, actually. Does that count as a solution?
Arkaan -- 1) they shouldn't unless they want Oscar attention. But if they don't they should shut the hell up about it instead of playing sour grapes and dissing a category that brings a lot of awareness to good films from countries that aren't as fortunate as France is when it comes to the arts.
2) No.
1) I get where you're coming from, but I think you're assertion that this is somehow stealth campaigning rather misguided. I'm not convinced that they care as much about the Oscar for this film because outside of prestige, it doesn't really affect them.
2) Okay, how about this. One thing many book awards do is allow the publishers to submit a set number of books to be considered for an award, but the judges are allowed to ask for specific submissions after those ones (so if TheFilmBitch submitted two books, but Judge A read/heard of a book that wasn't submitted from that publisher and wanted it in consideration, it would be added). I think having an AMPAS-led committee dedicated to looking for more films would be beneficial for two reasons
a) It doesn't entirely negate the submission process; nor does it remove the distributors from the equation. While, like Glenn said, having distributors entirely dictate the process is probably counterproductive to anything but the most palatable films, having national committees entirely dictating the process (as it is done now) makes the process more a mixture of politics and narrows the field unnecessarily.
b) It allows for advocacy. With the awards process becoming so echo-chamberesque, with critics organizations operating with a much narrower subset of films due to a desire to be seen as predictive and relevant to the oscar race and AMPAS reacting uncomfortably to it's member's own choices in general (the expansion to ten then to the variable number; the introduction of the committee) it would be a way to get ahead of the pack and give more conviction to the whole process itself.
Carlos - the selection of Transit is quite inspired. A fine piece of filmmaking both with substance and style. OTJ had the style and Thy Womb had the substance but Transit has both. I just hope it gets nominated on 16 January.
The strategy in Norway is that if a movie already has gotten rave reviews internationally, gone the film festival circuit route and gotten picked up by an international distributor, the chance for this superior film to be selected as the official Norwegian Oscar movie decreases a lot. A good example is Oslo, 31 August. The thinking is that giving the lesser known and in most cases, quality wise as well, the chance for the more Norwegian directors to be discovered
Kon-Tiki was already the Oscar contender long before it was released because the Norwegian film industry thought and were right that Kon.Tiki had the best chances
I believe this strategy is not unique in Norway at all
It's official. The Grandmaster represents Hong Kong, they announced it today.
PJ, I think The Grandmaster is an excellent film, so this is where we differ. Also, yes, Unbeatable did very well at the box office, but it just doesn't feels like a Hong Kong movie. A boxing/MMA movie just feels like a western thing (counter with the wuxia of Grandmaster). Of course, I haven't seen Unbeatable yet.
Finally, considering its release date (mid January) and that Wong Kar Wai had never been a populist draw, I think The Grandmaster's box office take is strong enough.
P.S, Nathaniel, if you haven't seen The Grandmaster, please hurry! It is losing theaters in the States and I would really like your opinion on it. :)
Manuel, that's a very interesting comment about the Norwegian strategy. It seems almost the opposite of the attitude of the Canadian selectors. I've noticed, over the past several years, that they go for films which have won prizes at major competitive international festivals (though they don't seem to take foreign distribution deals into account, as far as I can tell).
The Canadian choice should be announced this week, possibly even tomorrow (Tuesday). My guess is that they'll go withi "Gabrielle," a film about a 22-year old mentally handicapped young woman who wants to live more independently, and who wants to have a boyfriend. It picked up the audience choice award at Locarno (which "Monsieur Lazhar" won two years ago) and a couple of awards at Angoulême. (I saw it yesterday, on its opening weekend, and it's a sympathetic crowd-pleaser, to be brief.)
"Vic + Flo ont vu un ours" would also be a possibility, having won the Alfred Bauer Silver Bear at Berlin...but, quite frankly, it's a disappointing film, not very good at all.
"Tom à la ferme," the latest Xavier Dolan, would also be a possibility, given its having won the FIPRESCI critics award at Venice. However, this hasn't been released yet, and there's no official release date announced (though likely late October or early November). That puts it out of the running, since it's really too late in September to do a qualifying release.
Wikipedia has a very up-to-date list of the submission.
Someone should analyze the impact of Sony Pictures Classics and Samuel Goldwyn Films on the titles appearing on the long list and on the final nominees.
Pete -- or you could just check my charts ... although i am usually a few days behind wikipedia since there's more info on my charts :) and the same person who maintains the wikipedia pages helps with my charts. Thanks, A.D. :)
Nathaniel
I always check your charts and appreciate all the additional info you include, not the least of which are the posters. Yours is the best site in the Foreign Language Film category. Your enthusiasm is apparent!
Nathaniel
I meant to add...and the best film/oscar site period. Thanks for all the work you put into thefilmexperience.
Belgium will send The Broken Circle Breakdown. What a great film that is.
With it's soundtrack it should be loved by American audiences.
The Norwegians have settled on "Jeg er din" as their Oscar candidate:
http://www.norwaypost.no/index.php/culture/29005-new-norwegian-oscar-candidate
Well, I was right: Gabrielle will be the Canadian candidate:
http://www.telefilm.ca/en/news/releases/2013/09/24/telefilm-canada-annonce-que-le-film-gabrielle-de-louise-archambault-represe
Nat...a correction to your listing of the nominees: This is not the first submission for New Zealand; they had a Samoan-language film,, The Orator' in the 84th Oscars, two years ago.
And...Italy has decided to go with "La Grande Bellezza":
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/oscars-italy-nominates-great-beauty-636428
I saw the Norwegian entrant at TIFF. It's solid, but a little slight.