New Oscar Chart ~ Foreign Hopefuls Part 1
Thursday, July 27, 2017 at 10:00AM We won't start hearing about "official submissions" for Oscar's Foreign Language Film race until September but until then, it's speculation time! The first chart is up looking at countries from Afghanistan through Ethiopia.
The most high profile film from this batch, other than possibly another Austrian submission from Michael Haneke (Happy End), is Chile's A Fantastic Woman. It's a trans drama that took three prizes at Berlinale. If it's as good as director Sebastian Lelio's previous Oscar submission (Gloria) we'll have to riot if he's passed over again.
Other intriguing prospects include the well reviewed black and white fairy tale November from Estonia and possibly another submission from Oscar winner Jan Sverak of the Czech Republic. Sverak won the foreign film Oscar for his art house sleeper hit Kolya (1996) about a stepfather and his little boy and his latest called Barefoot is another childhood tale set in the countryside during World War II.
Check out the chart and report back
Reader Comments (16)
Brazil's got a film screened in cannes, and it won a minor Critic's Week prize: It's Gabriel and the Mountain.
Have you seen the Venice line-up? Lots of possibilities there.
I think Thailand will submit BAD GENIUS, the exam-cheating thriller that presents itself as a cross between teen and heist movie. Maybe this biggest local hit is too light-weighted comparing to those on festival circuit but it's a well-executed thrill ride that I'll be proud to see as representative.
what about On the Milky Road
Spain -- Summer 1993
http://variety.com/2017/film/markets-festivals/amazon-self-distribution-woody-allen-wonder-wheel-1202508413/
This year, Netflix will launch it's first Brazilian original movie: MATADOR. It's a genre movie, but I think that if it make sucess in and out of the country, it might be a possibility.
Oh, man. Egypt has been submitting for 50 years without a nomination? I really hope The Preacher is as good as they say, and it gets Egypt some recognition.
Cash yeah. some countries get no respect. of course most countries don't submit every single year. i just mark when they started submitting. so the record for that goes like so
MOST SUBMISSIONS WITHOUT A NOMINATION
1. Portugal (33 times)
2. Egypt and Romania (31)
4, The Philippines and South Korea (28)
6. Bulgaria (27)
7. Venezuela (26)
8. Croatia (25)
9. Serbia and Turkey (23)
N -- I thought you made a mistake by saying Romania had never been nominated because of "4 months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days," but then I verified that it wasn't nominated. How did that happen?!? Was that a small controversy I don't remember?
Cash -- it was a major controversy. One of the many major controversies for them in the Aughts that led to their "executive committee" system and you'll notice since then they have far fewer controversies though sometimes they still ignore a super hot foreign title (like ELLE last year)
Argentina: I hope they submit La cordillera (The Summit). According to local sources (not reflected in the imdb) they are planning a theatrical run in LA before the end of the year. That increases the chances for any film. I am sure that if Son of the Bride, The Secret in Their Eyes and Wild Tales had been released in the US that year they would have received other nominations!
What is worse is that according to current rules, once a film is nominated for BFLF, it is disqualified from receiving any nominations if it is released the following year.
That was not so in the 1970s. Jan Troell's The Emigrants won BFLF in 1971. It was released in the States in 1972 and was nominated for Best Film, Director, Actor and Screenplay. And that very same year, the sequel (The New Land) was nominated for BFLF!
Amazing -- thank you!!
For Chile, I can't help but feel like ENDLESS POETRY is too well-reviewed to ignore. I know Chile's already got a serious contender, but I wouldn't be stunned if Jodorowsky's swan song, which is his most accessible film, which also adored, manages to be submitted instead.
Your predictions for Brazil are quite right. I think our choice Will be between Cacá Diegues (The Great Mystical Circus), Marcelo Gomes (Joaquim), Selton Mello (The Movie of my life).
But If we have the balls for making history we will choose between João Moreira Salles (In the intense now)* , doc about 1968, and Leandra Leal (Divines Divas)**, doc about our first generation of travestite artists in the 1960's. If you love RuPaul's DragRace, you NEED to see this doc. The docs are our best reviewed movies of the year so far.
*http://m.imdb.com/title/tt6532954/
**http://m.imdb.com/title/tt2362790/
Sweden - The Square
Russia - Loveless
Chile - A Fantastic Woman
Germany or Israel - The CakeMaker
Germany - In the Fade
Austria - Happy End
France - BPM
Argentina - Zama / La Cordillera
Are the hot titles now
Correction to my post: The Emigrants was nominated for BFLF in 1971. It did not win. The winner was Italy's entry: Vittorio De Sica's The Garden of the Finzi-Continis.