Foreign Film Oscar Submission Speculation Begins
Tuesday, May 22, 2018 at 10:01AM by Nathaniel R
Lebanon's Capernam might be our earliest and most solid bet for submission/nomination
Just an FYI that the charts are now under construction for the Foreign Film Oscar submissions. We won't have the avalanche of "official" submission news until September but we can definitely begin to speculate over the summer, post-Cannes as to which films each country will submit.
Predictions - Stats / Blindfolded Early Predictions
Chart One - Afghanistan to Ethiopia
Chart Two - Finland to Mozambique
Chart Three - The Netherlands to Vietnam
Though it's tempting to assume that hits from Berlinale, Cannes, Venice, and Toronto will automatically be their country's submission, that isn't always the case...
Some countries have robust film industries and submit each and every year where others only submit infrequently. It's tough to know what will happen, especially since filmmakers relationships to their own country or country's selection committees are sometimes fraught.
The first winner of the competitive Foreign Film category was La StradaTo qualify for submission this year a film must be in a non-English language (anything more than 50% in English is ineligible) and it must be released in its home country between October 1st, 2017 and September 30th, 2018. Films from the United States made in non-English languages (there have been a few) are not eligible. Each country invited can only submit one film. Oscar invites well over 100 countries and last year a record 92 submitted
In 1956, the first year of the official category, just 8 countries submitted: Denmark (Qivitoq), France (Gervaise), Italy (La Strada - the eventual winner), Japan (The Burmese Harp), The Philippines (Anak Dalita), Spain (Afternoon of the Bulls), Sweden (The Staffan Stolle Story), and West Germany (The Captain of Köpenick). Most of those countries went on to be frequent nominees but sadly The Phillipines has yet to be nominated. They have been submitting annually, without fail, since 1995. Last year a record 92 countries submitted films.
If you have hints or news about your country's cinema, do share it or send us tips.
Reader Comments (15)
Don't forget Custody by Xavier Legrand for France, which won best director at Venize. This is an amazing movie.
Summer 1993 opens this friday! An emotional bombshell.
I've heard that 'Five Fingers for Marseilles' is very likely to be South Africa's submission. The trailer looks great too. Premiered at TIFF last year.
I think UK could submit 'I Am Not a Witch'? Could go far in the race.
Cyprus could potentially submit for the first time with Tribeca winner 'Smuggling Hendrix'.
No way Farahdi's will be submitted for Spain with the bad reviews it received across the board (plis, he's a foreign director) Ditto, Gorls of the Sun. The French Academy are usually more highborow than that.
You can't count the miserable CAPERNAUM (Cafarnaúm, in Spanish) which, I saw ast Cannes, not only will be submitted for Lebanon. It has high chances it get to the final 5. It tick all the usual goo Hollywood at large loves: child poverty, lovable child actors, gorgoeus cinematography and a redemptive arc. I don't usually get back at posters who resent this commentary like I am a contrarian. It's NOT against the country, it's against Labacki and this kind of so called "cinema". It's emotional extorsion and manipulation to the max. It's poverty and bad parenting thru the lens of a burgoise. It's political correction of the lamest kind: you know you're being manipulated, but you cannot hold it against it because it makes you look BAD. Therefore, Hollywood will embrace it.
To all interested in actual cinema: AVOID IT.
Cold War. You bet! Pawlikowsky will be there too. And this one is good.
Hoping South Korea submit Burning (which I think it will) and the special commitee let it in.
Shoplifters should be, too. Berlinale thios year didn't produce a "must see" film this year.
If Happy as Lazzaro is not submitted, the Garrone's Dogman will. But the Rorwhacher is the real game changer here. I hope Lazzaro Felice will be in, instead.
Too early to tell, though.
chofer -- but girls of the sun was not panned across the board. Obviously *you* don't like it but some people really did. I dont trust South Korea's selection committee after they passed over The Handmaiden in its year.
squasher -thanks for the hint.
duck -- ooh, i had forgotten about that one. It premiered at festivals last fall, yes?
I wish that Indonesia will be nominated for the first time this year if they choose to submit The Seen and The Unseen.
Nat
I didn'tn see GOTHS. But, obs, I had friend critics who summarizes it for me. Along with Yomeddine and Capernaum, where the "trilogy of shame" or, to put it succintly, films in competition, in na a very auterial YEAR, the condescended to the audiences, that could have been mady from ANY hackjob in the world putting a face to the miseries of this word. Highly stylised films about abohrring things. And very BLUNT at that.
Fremaux atoning with the lack of English speaking films or the ones more palatable by the industry.
I don't think they hold a candle to the ones I mention before. Simply, because they don't pander to the audiencies. Will Hollywood like them? Doubtful. Hollywood likes panderin: Blood Diamond, Slumdog Millionaire, The Help. Well, at least think of Capernaum in that group.
I'm confidte in my fellow critics whom I exchanged views at Cannes. Tere were the highly ydyosincratic films; then, there were these three..
Nat,
Yes, Custody premiered at festivals last fall, but it opened in France in january and therefore it is elligible for the oscars this year. The movie was very well received and I think it has a shot for representing France in 2018.
CUSTODY’s director is already an Oscar nominee, too, which can’t hurt.
I hope France submits Sauvage.
Doesn't Iceland also have Arctic and Woman at War?
And Iran with 3 Faces?
I really hope South Korea chooses Burning.
@Rod Iran is not going to submit a director they disapprove of so much that he can't even leave the country lol.
Rod -- Arctic is in English but I'll have to look up that other title. As for Iran. As Shane says, they'll never submit Panahi since he is still under government ban.
Thanks Shane and Nat. I had no idea about the ban. Oops!!
@Nat Speaking of Iran, you should update the chart to say 3 noms, 2 wins.
Another possibility for Argentina (and there several others). The film "Animal" was released this week, to very good reviews. It is directed by Oscar-winner Armando Bo and written by him and his cousin Nicolás Giacobone (they won Best Original Screenplay for "Birdman"). "Animal" is a thriller starring Guillermo Francella (The Secret in their Eyes). He plays a well-to-do ordinary man whose life falls to pieces when he is told that he needs an organ transplant. What will his family and friends be willing to do for him?
Of course, one can never underestimate the yearly Ricardo Darin project: "El amor menos pensado" (An Unexpected Love), a romantic comedy co-starring Mercedes Moran (Neruda).