Just this weekend, I was singing the praises of Pedro Costa's Vitalina Varela. Lo and behold, the shadowy chamber drama is one of four finalists for Portugal's Oscar submission. A jury of the Portuguese Film Academy, made up of directors Gonçalo Galvão Teles, Lauro António and Monique Rutler, actors Isabel Abreu and Welket Bungué, and cinematographer Miguel Sales Lopes, has selected their finalists from a list of 33 eligible features. The quartet of lucky films are…
- Listen by Ana Rocha de Sousa
- Mosquito by João Nuno Pinto
- Patrick by Gonçalo Waddington
- Vitalina Varela by Pedro Costa
Of the four directors represented, only Costa has had an previous submission from Portugal. Still, that was long before he had established his present style of abrasive minimalism, Caravaggio-esque shadow plays, and docu-narrative approach to storytelling. While the Portuguese selection juried are rarely concerned with the Oscar-y-ness of the submitted films, Vitalina Varela may prove too weird for them. It will certainly be too much for the Academy, but it's not like AMPAS has ever shown any love for Portuguese cinema. One might as well send a great picture rather than a lesser, though more strategic, contender.
Ana Rocha de Sousa won big at this year's Venice Film Festival.
Costa won the Golden Leopard at last year's Locarno Film Festival with Vitalina Varela, but he's not the only director coming to this race with some festival hardware. Ana Rocha de Sousa's Listen, a drama about the tribulations of Portuguese families immigrated in the United Kingdom, caused quite a stir at this year's Venice Film Festival. Shown in the Horizons section of the event, the picture won five prizes from several different juries.
Mosquito has less gold to its name, but this period piece had the honor of opening the Rotterdam Film festival earlier this year. João Nuno Pinto's debut feature concerns a Portuguese soldier who gets lost in the African landscape in 1917. The feverish jungle nightmare was inspired by the real-life experiences of the director's grandfather.
Teresa Sobral and Hugo Fernandes are remarkable in PATRICK.
Compared to its competitors, Gonçalo Waddington's Patrick may seem like a more modest prospect, but one shouldn't underestimate it. Part character study, part distillation of inchoate trauma, the film portrays a young man who was kidnapped as a child and systematically abused, reduced to a sex object, and a commodity. Many years after his captors lost interest in his no-longer childish body, Patrick is reunited with his mother, but there's no easy catharsis for his tale. It's an alienating picture, merciless to its marrow, and a majestic showcase for the cast. In the Portuguese CinEuphoria awards, it won the prizes for Best Actor (Hugo Fernandes) and Best Supporting Actress (Teresa Sobral).
I am predicting Listen as the submission though Vitalina Varela is my preference.
PORTUGAL'S OSCAR STATS
- Submitting since 1980
- 36 Total Submissions
- No Nominations or Finalists – Portugal holds the unfortunate record for most submissions without a single nomination.
Key Submissions Over the Years:
- Hard Times (1988) the first submission to be directed by João Botelho was also the first time Portugal submitted a film that had competed in one of Europe's main festivals. Hard Times won a FIPRESCI prize at Venice.
- Blood (1989) Pedro Costa's first film remains the celebrated Portuguese auteur's only submission for the Best International Film Oscar.
- Voyage to the Beginning of the World (1997) this was the great Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni's last film. It was released one year after his death.
- Belle Toujours (2006) Bulle Ogier tried on Catherine Deneuve's most iconic role, that of Séverine Serizy, in Manoel de Oliveira's sequel to Belle de Jour. This was also the director's last submitted film before his death in 2015, at the age of 106 (!) He worked until the end.
- José & Pilar (2010) an acclaimed documentary about one of Portugal's most celebrated literary voices, Nobel Prize winner José Saramago, and his beloved wife, Pilar del Rio.
- Lines of Wellington (2012) visionary Chilean filmmaker Raoul Ruíz died during the pre-production of this film. The director's unofficial thematic follow-up to Mysteries of Lisbon was completed by his trusted collaborator Valeria Sarmiento. It's a lavish period epic with such internationally celebrated actors as Isabelle Huppert, Marisa Paredes, and John Malkovich in key roles.
- Arabian Nights: Volume 2 – The Desolate One (2015) Miguel Gomes' magnum opus is one of Portugal's most acclaimed works of contemporary cinema. The trilogy also represents my favorite film of the last decade, though I prefer both the first and last volumes to this middle chapter.
- Saint George (2016) Nuno Lopes won the Best Actor award at the Venice Film Festival's Horizon section for his performance as an unemployed boxer turned amoral debt collector.
Most Frequently Submitted Directors in Foreign Film:
- Manoel de Olivera (8 submissions)
- João Botelho (3 submissions)
- [TIE] Miguel Gomes, Mario Barroso, João Canijo, Marco Martins (2 submissions)
Most Oscar-honored Portuguese artist:
- Eduardo Serra…2 nominations for Best Cinematography (he deserved the prize in 2003 for his painterly lensing of Girl with the Pearl Earring).
The announcement of Portugal's official submission for the 93rd Academy Awards will be made on November 16th. Which of these four films do you think will be selected?