Foreign Oscar Watch: Can "Elle" Slay the Competition?
Monday, September 26, 2016 at 12:45PM 
Verhoeven & Huppert at Cannes this summer
France, as ever, was spoiled with options when it came to selecting their film for Oscar competition this year. Frantz (reviewed) from François Ozon would likely have appealed to Oscar voters but the selection committee went with the controversial Elle (reviewed at TIFF). It's a brave choice but we think a smart one; even if its divisive within initial voting, it will likely be a candidate to benefit under the Executive Committee 'saves' rule. Plus those who love it will love it passionately meaning it could even have a dark horse shot at a win. Not only does it have a high profile auteur and star (Paul Verhoeven and Isabelle Huppert) but it's got sensational reviews, a US release on the table in the thick of Oscar traction season (November 11th), and an outside shot at a Best Actress nomination. France has not won the category since Indochine (1992) despite numerous nominations.
Trivia: Paul Verhoeven has had one previous film nominated in this category for his home country The Netherlands with Turkish Delight (1973). If Elle is nominated it would not be the first time a director has competed for multiple countries: Akira Kurosawa, who competed many times for Japan, won the prize for the Soviet Union with Dersu Uzala (1975); Luis Buñuel who won the Oscar for France with The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) was also nominated twice for Spain, his home country; and Michael Haneke won for Austria with Amour (2012) and also competed for Germany with The White Ribbon (2009)
More News:
Oscar's other favorite country Italy has selected the Golden Bear winner, Fire at Sea (reviewed at Berlinale), a documentary about the European migrant crisis. To my knowledge only two documentaries have ever been nominated in this category (Waltz With Bashir from Israel and The Missing Picture from Cambodia) but both of those were in the past eight years so perhaps Oscar votings are loosening up about these distinctions. Among countries who have not yet announced their submissions (with a week left) Poland and Argentina are the most formidable, statistically speaking, with Oscar.
Foreign Film Oscar Charts
Predictions - 15 films that could have the best chance at the finals?
Afghanistan to Finland - 22 submissions thus far
George to Morocco - 23 submissions thus far
Nepal to Venezuela - 28 submissions thus far
Reader Comments (19)
I'm kind of surprised that they passed on The Innocents.
I'm surprised every time I read France hadn't won since 1992 because Amour was such a huge Oscar success. Way to go Austria!
Would the rules allow Fuocoammare to be nominated in both categories (foreign and doc)?
The Story of the Weeping Camel was submitted by Mongolia for Best Foreign Film in 2003 and nominated for Best Documentary in 2004.
At least everyone is doing everything they can to make sure this film remains in the face of the Academy.
Can I ask a really dumb question, does best foreign film have to be predominantly spoken in non-English? Is that why British films are never submitted? And I'm assuming that the Australian entry would be spoken in the language of their indigenous aboriginals?
Ps. Yay for Elle. That and moonlight are my 2 most anticipated films of the season!!!
They keep changing the rules, but, yes, a film can be disqualified from Foreign Film consideration if there is too much English dialogue. The last case I know of was The Band's Visit (2007), which was disallowed because the Israeli and the Egyptian characters communicated with each other in English.
I should add to my question: "...simultaneously, i.e. nominated in both categories in the same year".
The Argentine Academy finally announced that voting for selecting the Argentine representative to both the Oscars and Spain's Goyas will close on Thursday.
Paul -- a film can be eligible in both categories yes. But as with animated features to be nominated in both categories you'd have to qualify for both and there are different rules. Waltz With Bashir I believe was eligible for both animated and foreign but was only nominated for foreign -- i'm assuming because that was one of those years with only 3 animated features nominated.
JB & Ken -- yeah, the rule is you can't be "predominantly" in English so if half the time the characters are speaking English you're disqualified. I was thinking about that during the Singapore submission. There's a lot of English in the prison itself where there are workers and prisoners who speak different languages and the common tongue is English. but I think that it's not more than half because the three main characters in the film speak to each other in Malay.
Spanish helmer Carlos Saura was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film both representing his native Spain (Mama Turns 100, 1979) and Argentina (Tango, 1998).
Meryl Streep is quoted in the Fuocoamare poster: “Urgent, imaginative and necessary filmmaking”
Yay Elle.
Who else is missing that usually submits? Argentina, Poland, South Africa... any other likely contenders. That would bring us to 78 or so-- I'm hoping for a record!
So now I've seen 15 of the submissions. The last time I posted, I had seen twelve, now I can add Juste la fin du Monde, Elle and Fuocoammare. And will see Tonio and Toni Erdmann in the coming two weeks.
And Fuocoammare should be seen by everybody in the US before Nov 8th, if they want to see what the refugee crisis is really about. It should be mandatory.
The one film I'm most sad about that wasn't submitted was the be the latvian film Mellow Mud. It was one of the best coming-of-age films I had seen in a while.
Zhang Yimou's Ju Dou represented China in 1990 and his Raise the Red Lantern represented Hong Kong in 1991.
Luis Bunuel just missed a trifecta. His Nazarin was Mexico's submission in 1959
Maximilian Schell directed nominees Erste Liebe (Switzerland, 1970) and Der Fußgänger (Germany, 1973). He was also nominated twice for Best Actor (winning once), once for Best Supporting Actor and one of his documentaries (Marlene) was nominated. Which has gotta be a unique statistic.
Those glasses alone have slayed me. Long may Huppert reign!
I'm so excited about the 'Elle' submission because it increases Huppert's chances of a nomination too - if the Academy members can kill two birds with one stone then they're more likely to prioritise seeing the film - and where Huppert is concerned, seeing is believing!! IMHO she is the most overdue actress of all time.