International Contender: Canada, Germany, Japan, and more...

Since the last posting of this kind we've had six new submissions announced for Oscar's International Feature Film race, bringing the total to 26 thus far. We're tracking both here on the Oscar charts and at letterboxd. (We usually end up around 90 titles but we suspect there will be fewer titles this year due to the pandemic and the resulting cinema chaos.)

"Funny Boy" from Canada

• ALBANIA - Open Door (Florenc Papas)
  A debut picture about a pregnant single woman travelling to see her conservative father
• AUSTRIA - What We Wanted (Ulrike Kolfer)
  A marital drama about a couple with fertility problems
• CANADA - Funny Boy (Deepa Mehta)
  1980s set Sri Lankan drama about a young boy falling in love with a classmate
• ESTONIA - The Last Ones (Veiko Õunpuu)
  A crime comedy from one of Estonia's favourites. This is his third submission
• GERMANY - And Tomorrow the Entire World (Julia von Heinz)
  Antifa youth investigating local Neo-Nazis. More on Germany's Oscar history here...
• JAPAN - True Mothers (Naomi Kawase)
  Drama about an adoptive mom and her child's birth mother
• SLOVENIA - Stories from the Chestnut Woods (Gregor Božič)
  A post World War II drama about a young chestnut seller and an old carpenter

You can read more about these films on the submission charts.

Four of these seven new entries are from female directors, one of whom has been here before (Canada's Deepa Mehta competed in this category back in with 2006 with Water.) The abundance of female directors could well prove to be the story of this year in International Film. Consider that 10 of the 26 films announced thus far are from female directors. This category's submission lists have long shown that other countries were supporting female directors in greater numbers than US cinema but this year the percentage is really climbing.

Comments

[bonobo]

I am really looking forward to watching "And tomorrow the entire world" even if I would end being more depressed about this rise of far-right movements everywhere.

Not intending to give you extra-work, but would be possible to get some statistics (or are they available elsewehere) on the female-directed submissions to the International Feature Film submissions and nominations?
In that sense, it still hurts that "Portrait of a lady on fire" was not the French submission in 2019 (even if "Les Misérables" is a solid film) and that Spain's submission in 2010 "Even the rain" did not make the nominees list (it is such an important recent story that should be known by more people).

[Rod]

The Slovenian film is out in Canada surprisingly. I can't wait to watch it this weekend.

[Mirko]

I knew Deepa Mehta was interested in making a movie about Shyam Selvadurai's novel FUNNY BOY but I wasn't aware it was ready. I'm very curious about it since the novel it's interesting and I hope in the future someone could try to make a film also about CINNAMON GARDENS, another novel by Selvadurai

[davidm]

I run hot and cold on the films of Deepa Mehta. She's very hit or miss. Sometimes even within her films there are things to admire and big missteps.

The trailer for Funny Boy appears to both improve on some aspects I found annoying in the novel and include some of Mehta's usual foibles.

I'd be surprised if Canada makes the cut this year.