Foreign Oscar Race Begins: Australia, Brazil, Croatia, Cuba, Denmark
Friday, August 26, 2016 at 4:34PM Over the next couple of months we'll be hearing the names of the 70ish films that will be competing for Oscar's coveted shortlist as Best Foreign Language Film. So far nine countries have selected their films and other countries have begun the winnowing to get to their top choice.
Our charts are now in progress with posters, info, and links to official sites and such as well as links back to highlights from last year's global class.
The Companion forces a boxer and a soldier with AIDS to spend lots of time together
Chart 1 Afghanistan to Finland
Denmark and Brazil have narrowed it down to three films each with Brazil's choice already embroiled in a lot of controversy due to political fighting in regards to Aquarius (starring Sonia Braga which hits TIFF & NYFF shortly and which was very well received at Cannes) though I have to admit it's hard to make sense of the turmoil from an outsider's perspective given the Google translate limitations. Thank to Jon in the comments for alerting us to this brewing controversy but if someone can sum it up for us in brief that would be appreciated. But on our first chart we have three official submissions
CUBA - THE COMPANION
Cuba's submission is about a boxer accused of doping who is forced to become a companion to a soldier who has contracted AIDS. Cuba has only been nominated for the LGBT drama Strawberry & Chocolate (1994) in the past but I maintain that Behavior (2014), their most recent submission, would have been a worthy nominee. Here's the new film's trailer with subtitles:
CROATIA - ON THE OTHER SIDE
There is a trailer available but not subtitled. It's about a mother who's kept a secret for a very long time.
AUSTRALIA - TANNA
Australia's entry takes place on a remote island and is performed by the Yakel tribe. This one opens in New York City and Los Angeles in September so cross your fingers that it wins further expansion. Here's the official site and the trailer. Our own Glenn Dunks wrote about it for Paradise magazine. It won two prizes at Venice last year and it looks potentially exciting...
Tanna - Trailer - All parts performed by the people of Yakel from Lightyear Entertainment on Vimeo.
Reader Comments (12)
About the Brazil and Aquarius situation, I'll try to be brief, but it's hard, it's a big ol carnaval: the cast and director made a protest about the coup taking place in Brazil when they went to Cannes with signs on the big steps and whatnot. The film's director is also very vocal (to the left to the left) about the political situtation in the country right now. A movie critic that was critical of the cast protest and the directors political views (he picked up a fight with him on social media and all) was named part of the board in the ministry of culture that picks the movie that will be submited to the oscars by Brazil. Also, Aquarius was rated R by the ministry, making it a tough sell for distribution. Some are saying this is a way of trying to censor the director. There's more to it, that's the basic.
About Aquarius:
The director and the crew is been censor by their political positions. They are against Dilma Rousseff impeachment and make it public at Cannes Film Festival. A big part of population and politicians consider this an affront to the interim president and they proteges. In response to this afront, they put on the board that Will submits Brazil Foreign Language Film someone Who took the political positions of the director and crew of Aquarius to the 'personal level' and make shore that the movie Will not be selected by their public alegations in favor of Dilma Rousseff. Add to this, the ministry of justice rated Aquarius for + 18 years Old, for (what many are thinking) make they box office even harder.
The +18 rating received by Aquarius is the same given to porn, so it would translate better as an X or NC-17 in the american system. But yeah, V. sum it up well. Just to add more drama, Anna Mulayert (The Second Mother, last yr submission) decided to withdraw her new movie from the competition to support Aquarius, the same happened to Neon Bull.
v., jon and dan covered basically it all... fantastic protest cannes in cannes was followed by:
- our (interim) minister of culture condemning such act;
- a journalist that was very critical of the cast being selected to the board that decides our oscar submission (prompting a letter from kleber mendonça filho that was published in a newspaper here);
- 18+ rating for the movie, which some say is unwarranted;
- fellow directors withdrawing themselves for oscar consideration in support of "aquarius".
The Cuban film looks interesting
Woah - The guy in the cap makes me want to visit Cuba!
Does anyone think there's any hope for the Korean film Train to Busan? I've heard it's very good.
@beyaccount Train to Busan is a high-energy, highly-entertaining zombie flick (with a bit of social commentary) but I doubt it will be their choice for submission. They usually go for prestige than fun, I suppose.
Some countries have already picked their horses which you may have heard from major film festivals. Toni Erdmann (Germany), Sieranevada (Romania), My Life as a Courgette (Animation from Switzerland) and From Afar (Golden Lion Winner from Venezuela).
This is my favorite category. So excited!
Here it is. Now with subtitles :D
http://variety.com/2016/film/in-contention/oscars-controversy-aquarius-brazil-1201845672/
The Cuban movie seems heavy handed, but the male leads are super hot. Armando Miguel looks like Josh Helman and Yotuel Romero used to be in a Orishas, a cool band.
The male leads in the Cuban film are hot- but on second thoughts it does look like a gay tease bromance
The Cuban film has potential. I just hope that it balances both main characters' views and doesn't take the "straight man learns about gay men" approach.
For those who want to learn more about the HIV quarantine in Cuba, there's an episode of Radiolab ("Los Frikis") that discusses the camps HIV+ people were sent to, though it focuses more on punk rockers who purposefully gave themselves HIV as an act of defiance.