International Contenders: Guatemala, Bulgaria, Slovakia
Saturday, November 7, 2020 at 3:25PM Since the last round up three more countries have announced Oscar submissions bringing the total of competing films to 37.
Guatemala's La Llorona, from the director of Ixcanul
A few trivia notes regarding these latest submissions. First, Maria Bakalova who is currently enjoying an instant critical/populist splash as the co-star of Borat Subsequent MovieFilm is in the ensemble of Bulgaria's dramedic submission The Father. That film is not to be confused with the English-language Anthony Hopkins Oscar hopeful The Father or the Serbian film Father (which we loved at CIFF this fall). Too many movies named Father!
Meanwhile, Guatemala has submitted the newish filmmaker Jayro Bustamante again, who made a festival splash with his debut Ixcanul (2015). His new film is La Llorona (2020)... yes, another film with a title that could easily get it confused with other contemporary offerings like Curse of La Llorona (2019) or Legend of La Llorona (2020). More details on the Oscar charts and also a visual overview of the whole field at Letterboxd
Reader Comments (12)
I watched La Llorona yesterday - it was quite good. And then Wet Season this morning, which I liked as well. A Sun for me is still my favourite so far.
Greece also submitted "Apples" which premiered in the Venice Film Festival and has also screened in Toronto and AFI fest. It has secured US distribution and after seeing it in Venice Cate Blanchett is now executive producer. It has Lanthimos feel, somewhere in "The Lobster" and "Dogtooth" area.
La Llorona is EXCELLENT, maybe not the kind of film that gets Oscar nominations, but I could see it making it to the semi-finals. It's on SHUDDER, but it's hardly a typical horror film. It's closer to Michael Haneke than Mike Flanagan.
Hi TFE cinephiles --
Can you list the forthcoming film festivals here? I want to watch as many international films. I missed the Chicago Film Festival which was screening "Charlatan" and "Dear Comrades".
@Sheridan
The Thessaloniki Film Festival began two days ago. You can watch the films online for 3 Euros per film. Not sure if you can watch it if you live outside of Greece though, but you can try. Many screenings are sold out, because they release only a certain amount of "tickets".https://www.filmfestival.gr/en/
LA LLORONA is superb and I hope it gets into the shortlist. Horror as political filmmaking, a ghost story where the spectral intruders are the spirits of a nation rather than a single vengeful person. I loved it so much.
Regarding the online screenings of the Thessaloniki Films Festival the Oscar submissions of the following countries are available
Germany - And Tomorrow the Entire World
Greece - Apples
Ivory Coast - The Night of the Kings
Japan - True Mothers
Palestine - Gaza My Love
Poland - Never Gonna Snow Again
Sweden - Charter
The entries from Georgia and Kosovo were also scheduled but currently they don't appear on the available films.
@Manolis
Thanks for the heads-up. I went to the site of Thessaloniki Film Festival and the films are either "Not Avalable" or "Sold Out". Not sure if the tickets are extremely limited or because I am not in Greece, but it looks like I have no options. Thanks just the same. I will be on the lookout for other film festival virtual screenings.
"Gaza mon Amour" and "Apples" look quite good though.
When is the deadline for countries to submit their films?
Rod -- i'm not sure exactly when the deadline is (becuase that doesn't always correlate with release date eligibility) but they're usually due by October 1st (with a deadline of release by September 30th) and then the official list is released by the Academy in the first week of October.. But this year that deadline (for release) is delayed til Dec 31st... so theoretically i assume we'll get the longlist official in the latter part of the first week of January
hope that makes sense.
Thanks so much Nathaniel. :)
La Llorona was the last movie I watched in a movie theater before the pandemic started, I still think Ixcanul is a better movie, but La Llorona stands by itself, it was a cathartic experience and a great example of art trying to comfort a country's trauma, it's a little conventional with weird parts at first until you understand what it want to say. I don't think it's gonna be nominated, but it will be great if it's shortlisted and people talk, as it happened with Ixcanul, about what is happening with Guatemala's cinema right now.