by Nathaniel R
We're up to 14 announced submissions for this year's Best International Feature Oscar so those submission charts are updated with the following films added
- Algeria - Héliopolis
- Czech Republic - Charlatan
- Ecuador - Emptiness
- Kosovo - Exile
- Singapore - Wet Season
We've only had the pleasure of seeing one of these five newly announced titles so far, Wet Season (which was a Golden Horse nominee last year). I liked it at TIFF in 2019 though I thought it erred on the side of being too much of a "slow burn" if you know what I mean. But a year later I'll admit that I think of it surprisingly frequently so even though I was a thumbs up, I underestimated it! It's an emotionally complicated story of an unhappy teacher who becomes way too involved with the life of her lonely student (they're pictured above).
But back to the submissions, of the 14 films we know about so far 6 are from female directors! How about that? One of those female directors is a regular, in point of fact...
Father and Son Stars and their director Agnieszka Holland
Czech Republic is submitting Charlatan by Polish director Agniezka Holland. The film is set in the mid 20th century and is based on a true story about a gay herbalist who healed several people but was thought by the authorities to be a conman. The main character is played by father and son actors Ivan Trojan and Josef Trojan. It looks interesting, don't you think?!
Holland is already well liked / well known among Academy members. Her mentor in the 1970s was the Oscar-loved Polish auteur Andrzej Wajda. She was later nominated for writing Europa Europa (1990). That Holocaust drama, about a Jewish boy pretending to be a Nazi, was very popular with US arthouse audiences in its year and probably would have won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film if Oscar had allowed its submission. But, if I recall correctly -- this was, of course, way before The Film Experience existed -- it was considered too "international" to represent one country (they were harsher about the rules regarding "country of origin" back then).
But Holland has long been an international film presence, most honored for Jewish dramas (her father was Jewish but she was raised Catholic): Germany submitted her for the World War II drama Angry Harvest in 1985 (which was nominated), and Poland submitted her for the World War II drama In Darkness, 2011 (which was also nominated) and for the animal rights activist drama Spoor, 2017 (which was not). This is her first submission from Czech Republic but she went to film school in Prague and considers the Czech New Wave one of her most crucial influences. She's also made films for the UK and the US in English like Total Eclipse (starring Leonardo DiCaprio), The Secret Garden (Maggie Smith BAFTA nomination), and the Henry James adaptation Washington Square (starring Jennifer Jason Leigh).
Are you getting excited about the Oscar race yet? Have you ever seen any of Holland's films?