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« Almost There: Joan Allen in "Pleasantville" | Main | Gay Best Friend: Wallace Wells in "Scott Pilgrim vs the World" »
Monday
Nov302020

International Oscar - will we have a record number of competing films? 

Since the Thanksgiving Eve update we've had the following films join the competition for Oscar's Best International Feature Film bringing the current number up to 84.

  • Bangladesh - Sincerely Yours, Dhaka which is an anthology from multiple directors about life in Dhaka (streaming on Netflix)
  • Belarus - Persian Lessons
  • Hong Kong - Better Days which is  teen crime drama about a bully victim and a street thug who protects her (for rent on Amazon | more on Hong Kong and Oscar)
  • Iceland - Agnes Joy a mother daughter drama
  • Pakistan - Zindagi Tamasha / Circus of Life is about an elderly man who loves music whose life is changed by a social media post which brings him in conflict with the strict Muslim society in which he lives. 
  • Serbia - Dara in Jasenovac  *sniffle* Was really hoping it'd be Father which I looooved at CIFF but perhaps this Holocaust drama about two kids in a concentration camp is stellar, too?
  • Uruguay - Aleli in which three adult siblings fight over their father's home when he dies (streaming on Netflix)

The record for most competitors for Best International Feature Film is 92 (the 2017 competition). 2019 tried to break that with 93 submissions but two were disqualified, which allowed 2017 to keep the record. We're just 8 titles short (if none of the ones we've heard about are disqualified) of a new record for 2020. You can follow this list on the charts here or at letterboxd.

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Reader Comments (3)

Song Without a Name (Peru) is out on iTunes now as well.

November 30, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterRod

With so few people going to movie theaters Canada's Oscar pick Funny Boy gets a world broadcast premiere Friday night on CBC television and online at CBC Gem.

https://www.cbc.ca/arts/the-exclusive-world-broadcast-premiere-of-deepa-mehta-s-funny-boy-is-coming-to-cbc-on-december-4th-1.5777621

December 1, 2020 | Unregistered Commenterdavidm

So happy, that Belarus chose "Persian lessons" (premiered @Berlinale)... it's such a great and emotional film and THE best actor of the year so far (Lars Eidinger - theater actor who has played several big Shakespeare roles on stage and here he is the nazi, who is being fooled).

TOP ones, that I have seen, that I think have a real chance of getting forward are: (my favourite so far) Tunisia (unless they won't accept it, because it's half in English, but man, what a script!), Belarus, Denmark, Russia(if they get the irony, that there is no irony, but this was life in Soviet Union for real those days), Latvia (nice and big war story, good cinema), Finland (maybe too basic of a biography, but it has it's moments+it is the Moomin writer, also a bit about theater, and art and family matters which seems to do the trick sometimes) and Iran (kids are cool and what a good ending!)... Maybe Czech also, although I strongly doubt it...
The ones that have really disappointed and won't stand a chance this year: Sweden(!), Georgia and Germany.

December 2, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterKris
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