Oscar's Foreign Race Pt 2: Female Directors & Debut Filmmakers

Pt 1 - All 81 Movie Trailers
Pt 2 Everything You Wanted to Know About the Foreign Language Film Category...  *But Were Afraid to Ask

Mustang has a female director and female cast. Will this be a good year for women in Oscar's Foreign Film race?

The next time you see someone tweeting about the lack of female directors that get work in Hollywood, please point them to Oscar's Foreign Language Film category. This category reminds us, year after year, that Hollywood is not the entirety of Cinema. We'd do well to commit that to memory. And progressive thinking moviegoers would do well to seek out the alternate voices that already exist that they say they want... even if that requires reading subtitles.

You see, each year countries around the world are asked to submit one film to represent their entire country at the Oscars (it need no longer be in an indigenous language to that country, just not in English). Each year at least a handful of countries submit films directed by women. This year it's much more than that. Now, that might not be a direct correlative to "it's better for female directors in ____ than in the USA" but it's not nothing!

Consider the act in reverse. Can you imagine Hollywood, if they were forced to submit one film that represented them for a whole calendar year, choosing a female-directed film to speak for them? Given their lack of interest in films about women let alone films directed by them, this seems unthinkable. The sole exception is probably Kathryn Bigelow's military drama The Hurt Locker (2009). 

Where are the Women? Right Here!
This year the Oscar race for Best Foreign Language Film has 81 contenders. A total of 13 of those films are directed or co-directed by women. [More...]

They are: 

• Bota (Albania) directed by Iris Elezi & Thomas Logoreci
• Goodnight Mommy (Austria) directed by Severin Fiala & Veronika Franz
• Our Every Day Life (Bosnia) directed by Ines Tanovic
• The Second Mother (Brazil) directed by Anna Muylaert
• The Last Reel (Cambodia) directed by Kulikar Sotho
• Sand Dollars (Dominican Republic) directed by Israel Cárdenas & Laura Amelia Guzmán
• Mustang (France) directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven
• Void (Lebanon) this is an omnibus film from seven Lebanese filmmakers. There are three female directors among them: Zeina Makki, Christelle Ighniades and Maria Abdel Karim
• The Summer of Sangaille (Lithuania) directed by Alanté Kavaïté
• You Carry Me (Montenegro) directed by Ivona Juka
• Cloudy Times (Paraguay) directed by Arami Ullón
• 7 Letters (Singapore) this is an omnibus film by seven of Singapore's most acclaimed filmmakers. There is one woman among them, the documentarian Tan Pin Pin 
• The Tree (Slovenia) directed by  Sonja Prosenc

Sixteen percent of the list is a healthy percentage if you compare it to recent reports from Hollywood about how strangely few directing jobs go to women and especially healthy when you know that each country can only make one selection. "This," they're essentially saying, "is our best." 

Debut Films

Czech director Slávek Hórak with his actresses from his debut feature "Home Care"

27 of this years 81 competition films are from first timers! It's hard enough to get a movie made in the first place. Now imagine making your first and your country names it their very best for the film year. Congratulations to these newbies. It happened to them: 

• Bota (Albania) Iris Elezi & Thomas Logorec have both previously (and separately) made narrative and documentary shorts. This is the first feature film for both of them.
• Arrows of the Thunder Dragon (Australia) Greg Sneddon has previously mostly written music for television. Weirdly IMDb lists this film with a subtitle of The Director's Cut but without a previous version what is the point of the distinction?
• Goodnight Mommy (Austria) READ OUR INTERVIEW 
• Jalal's Story (Bangladesh). Abu Shahed Emon had only worked on a couple of short films before this debut feature
• Our Everyday Life (Bosnia). Ines Tanovic, no relation to Bosnian Oscar winner Danis Tanovic (No Man's Land) as far as I am aware
• The Last Reel (Cambodia). Kulikar Sotho had previously worked as a location manager, production coordinator before helming his first feature. She's already at work on a second film. 
• Home Care (Czech Republic) Slávek Horák makes his first feature after a successful career in directing commercials. His only previous film credit was  2nd AD on the Oscar winner Kolya (1996)
• Lamb (Ethiopia) Yared Zelecke had previously made shorts
• Mustang (France) Deniz Gamze Ergüven has made short films and worked as an actress before this feature debut
• Labyrinth of Lies (German) Giulio Ricciarelli previously worked as an actor in features as well as a director of shorts before making this feature - READ OUR INTERVIEW.
• Ixcanul (Guatemala) Jayro Bustamante had previously only made a couple of shorts

View image | gettyimages.com

• Son of Saul (Hungary) László Nemes made three shorts before this debut film made a huge splash at Cannes this summer
• Court (India) Chaitanya Tamhane had made one short before
• Baba Joon (Israel) Yuval Delshad had previously worked in docs before this narrative debut
• Theeb (Jordan) Naji Abu Nowar had crafted a couple of shorts
• Babai (Kosovo) Visar Morina had made two shorts previously
• Heavenly Nomadic (Kyrgyzstan) Mirlan Abdykalykov was an actor before this debut behind the camera
• Modris (Latvia) Juris Kurseitis worked as an AD and made shorts before this debut
• 600 Miles (Mexico) Gabriel Ripstein had previously worked as a producer and screenwriter
• The Wanted 18 (Palestine) Though his directing partner had made others, this is Amer Shomali's first documentary feature
• Cloudy Times (Paraguay) another debut documentarian here in Arami Ullón
• Goat (Slovakia) Ivan Ostrochovsky had previously made a doc but this is his first narrative feature
• The Tree (Slovenia) Sonja Prosenc had acted and been an AD before this
• The Two Of Us (South Africa) Ernest Nkosi had produced shorts before this
• How To Win at Checkers (Every Time) (Thailand) Josh Kim had previously made shorts
• Sivas (Turkey) Kaan Mujdeci had previously made a short film
• A Moonless Night (Uruguay) German Tejeira has previously made short films

Do you think all of these new voices indicate promising diversity in the future or is this a symptom of something else? Do you think it's wishful thinking that filmmaking is an easier field to break into abroad for women than it is in Hollywood? 

READ MORE ABOUT THE FOREIGN FILM CATEGORY 
- and check out the official submission charts for posters, official sites and details 

Comments

[LadyEdith]

Again thanks for this very handy list, I will be using it as my guide for the next few months.

[Kevin]

This is so extensive and informative.

[Ivonne]

I will now clicking back and forth between this post and the trailer post to see which film belongs to which woman/newbie. This is great!

[Peggy Sue]

You should be in the Foreign Film Comitee.

Cheryl Boone Isaacs are you listening?!!!

[Glenn Dunks]

SON OF SAUL, surely the closest we'll ever get to Bela Tarr winning an Oscar (or, hell, even being thanked on an Oscars telecast).

[Charlie]

Thanks a lot for those lists. These stats are quite encouraging.