Top Ten: The Countries Oscar Forgot To Honor
Sunday, December 5, 2021 at 3:00PM by Nathaniel R
Any discussion of Oscar's Best International Feature Film competition throughout history begins with Italy and France. They dominated the early years and though they rarely win now they can still generate buzz with comparative ease (including this year with Hand of God and Titane). Oscar voters have (virtually) travelled to every continent and every major film market at least once or twice since the birth of the category in the 1950s. Their choices don't always reflect where the hot spots in world cinema are, though -- They notoriously missed the entirety of the Romanian New Wave in the Aughts, the provocative if brief Dogme 95 period in Denmark, apart from Japan they're super stingy with Asian cinema in general to the point where it took an international blockbuster ($259 million globably for Parasite) for them to finally notice what was happening in South Korea. Still, it's a fascinating category both for its triumphs and its failures.
All that said it's also worth repeating that no one is ever truly fair to Oscar in their critiques. It's an impossible sisphyean task to sum up the best of what's happening in non English language cinema throughout history via only five titles each season, especially since you can't control which titles will be in the mix and you cant have more than one per country.
Here are the 10 admirably persistent countries that keep trying despite Oscar's refusal to acknowledge them. They've submitted the most often without receiving a single nomination. Will their fates change this year?
TOP TEN COUNTRIES THAT OSCAR HAS YET TO HONOR
01 PORTUGAL (38 submissions. Submitting since 1980)
Cláudio's home country! This year's submission is the well-regarded The Metamorphosis of Birds (reviewed) though it seems unlikely to change Portugal's fate in this category. Portugal is known for submitting challenging art films and Oscar rarely cottons to those unless the director is very famous or the acclaim is universal and noisy. Portugal's most high profile and cinephile-beloved submission in recent years was surely Arabian Nights: Volume 2 (2015) but it couldn't clear its many hurdles to a nomination including being the middle part of a very long, metaphoric, political anthology/trilogy.
02 EGYPT (36 submissions. Submitting since 1958)
Some of their best regarded submissions were Cairo Station (1958), The Nightingale's Prayer (1959), The Night of Counting Years (1969), Destiny (1997), and The Yacoubian Building (2006). This year's entry is Ayten Amin's Souad.
03 THE PHILIPPINES (32 submissions. Submitting since 1953)
Juan Carlos's home country! The closest they came to a nomination was probably either the charming hit The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros (2006) or the 1953 Cannes player Genghis Khan which was up for consideration back when the Academy only gave out an Honorary Oscar for foreign cinema before the category debuted in 1956. Sadly for the Philippines, 1953 was the only year in the embryonic years of the category (1947-1955) when Oscar chose to not give out a Foreign Honorary Award at all. The Phillipines have been submitting annually since 1995 with two exceptions: 2005 and this year. We haven't heard why they didn't submit this year.
04 BULGARIA (32 submissions. Submitting since 1971)
The closest they came to a nomination was surely the roadtrip film The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner which made the finalist list in 2009. But prior to 2008 the finalist list did not exist so perhaps they had another "almost there" title from the 20th century, too? This year's submission, Fear, is a drama about a widow who meets an African refugee.
05 VENEZUELA (31 submissions. Submitting since 1978)
Venezuela has been submitting since 1978. They did make the finals once for The Liberator (2014) but have yet to be nominated. This year's submission is the drama The Inner Glow about a terminally ill single mother who faces difficult decisions.
06 CROATIA (30 submissions. Submitting since 1992)
Croatia was once part of Yugoslavia, a country that Oscar liked regularly , and two films from Croatian film studios were nominated including The Road a Year Long though that was from an Italian director (whose wife was a Yugoslav actress) and The Ninth Circle though the latter was from a Slovenian director. Their submission this year is Teresa37 about a woman who decides to shake up her life after multiple miscarriages.
07 THAILAND (27 submissions. Submitting since 1984)
The closest they ever came? It's tough to say. Their most famous submissions was arguably Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010) but that mysterious jungle-set Cannes winner was so far from the Academy's wheelhouse that it's hard to imagine it factored in at all since even the Executive Committee didn't opt to save it. Thailand likes to send auteur films (particularly Pen-Ek Raanaruan who they've sent four times, with Last Life in the Universe probably the most famous among those) or dramas, historical and otherwise. Lately they've been submitting full fledged genre films way outside of The Academy's wheelhouse. This year's submission The Medium is a found footage horror film about shamanism and possession.
08 TURKEY (28 submissions. Submitting since 1964)
In recent years they've tried everything from populist entertainments to cinephile art-film darlings but Oscar has yet to notice them apart from one finalist citation for Three Monkeys (2008) from Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey's most famous auteur, at least to international audiences. Turkey has submitted his films five times. This year's submission is Commitment Hasan from Semih Kaplanoglu and it's part of a thematic trilogy of films.
09 [TIE] SLOVAKIA and SLOVENIA (25 submissions each. Both countries have been submitting since 1993)
Similar names and same Oscar origin year but very different countries. Slovakia was once part of Czechoslovakia (a country Oscar noticed fairly frequently) and one Slovak language film was nominated (and won) during those years, the masterpiece The Shop on Main Street (1965). Slovenia was once part of Yugoslavia (another no-longer-existing country that Oscar liked a lot) and one film with a Slovenian director The Ninth Circle (1960) was nominated during that country's existence. Neither country has ever made the finals so it's tough to say if they ever came close a nomination before the finalist round of voting was invented. This year's Slovak entry is the excellent women's prison drama 107 Mothers (reviewed) -- we'd be thrilled if it surprised and made the finalist list though we aren't expecting it to at all. This year's Slovenian entry is Sanremo, an alzheimer's drama.
Honorable Mentions - A dozen more frequently submitting countries that have yet to be nominated
11. Indonesia (23 submissions) Their submission this year, Yuni, comes from a very talented young female director Kamila Andini (The Seen and Unseen)
12. Uruguay (21 submissions) This one is a special case: They were actually nominated once in 1992 but disqualified after the nomination. This year's submission is the comedy Broken Glass Theory
13. Luxembourg (18 submissions). This year's submission is Io Sto Bene
14. Bangladesh (17 submissions). This year's submission is Rehana
15. Singapore (15 submissions) This year's submission is Precious is the Night
16. Albania (14 submissions) This year's submission is Two Lions in Venice
Afghanistan (14 submissions) No submission this year
Dominican Republic (14 submissions) This year's submission is Holy Beasts
19. Bolivia (13 submissions) This year's submission is The Great Movement
Latvia (13 submissions) This year's submission is The Pit
RUNNERS UP FOR TOP TWENTY.
Costa Rica (10 submissions) This year's submission is Clara Sola
Pakistan (10 submissions) No submission this year
Iraq (10 submissions) This year's submission is Europa
Do you think the Oscar fates of any of these countries will change this year?
Reader Comments (10)
I had to do a double take seeing Turkey until I remembered France ultimately submitted Mustang. (still one of my faves). Surely that would have been a nomination for them had it played out differently.
Of the ones I've seen so far, Egypt has the best chance to break into a nom.
Others:
Croatia's very usual social drama - No way
Slovak, maybe TOP15, Slovenia - No way
Luxembourg - really hard to believe it can break into 15.
Bangladesh - I don't get why there's a little buzz... just because it was in Cannes and London festivals? Dark and blue coloured movie, it's really weird if it breaks even into 15, nom is impossible.
Bolivia - No way!
Costa Rica - Don't believe it can make it... I woudn't bet any money on it.
So yeah - Egypt has the strongest chance of these - interesting storyline with a big surprise in the middle of the film, that will change the course of the whole story. It's fun for a while, but then turns into very serious. Culturally interesting also.
And let's see if Slovak (my 19th of 52 seen so far) can slip into 15.It is somewhat special, but I strongly doubt it.
A couple of notes about the Philippines: The Philippines was one of 8 countries that submitted during the first year of the competitive International Feature category. All the other 7 countries have been nominated and won. The Philippines is the only one that has yet to be nominated.
Looking over at our past submissions, I was shocked to learn the Philippines did not submit “Manila in the Claws of Light” and “Insiang”, two of Lino Brocka’s best known and widely acclaimed masterpieces as well as Mike de Leon’s “Kisapmata” and “Batch ‘81”, Ishmael Bernal’s “Himala (Miracle)” and Mario O’Hara’s “Three Godless Years”. It’s no wonder the Philippines has never gotten a nomination.
@Irvin. I agree that the two Brocka classics could have gotten nominated and one or the other might even have won. That was the era in which things like DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE and Z won in that category. Had they gotten nominations they would have likely gotten more than tiny to non existent USA releases.
Thank you again for coverage of the International Race.
I'm so glad when countries finally get their first nomination, like it happened recenty for Colombia, Romania and Tunisia !
THE EDGE OF HEAVEN is a wonderful Turkish-German drama, but it's Germany who submitted it in 2007.
TABU (2012) by Miguel Gomes was astounding but Portugal didn't submit it.
Thank you again for coverage of the International Race.
I'm so glad when countries finally get their first nomination, like it happened recenty for Colombia, Romania and Tunisia !
THE EDGE OF HEAVEN is a wonderful Turkish-German drama, but it's Germany who submitted it in 2007.
TABU (2012) by Miguel Gomes was astounding but Portugal didn't submit it.
Looks like Oscar is going to invade us. Fuck imperialism!
2014 it would have been a great year to Venezuela to be nominated having two great films from 2013: La Casa del Fin de los Tiempos (The House at the End of Time) and La Distancia Más Larga (The Longest Distance)
I haven't watch that year submission (Libertador) but I find boring that the academies chooses co-productions with famous names instead of art-house local productions.
sfenton24 - I know, so did I, though I do remember Turkey didn't want to submit that film because they didn't like how it made Turkey look (I was working at a film festival that year that had Turkey as its Spotlight Country and they wouldn't allow us to screen Mustang as part of the Spotlight, so we had to put it into the Official Selection in order to screen it), but it was so acclaimed that France ultimately decided to submit it, which I'm glad they did, as I adore that film... I'm surprised Nathaniel didn't include that particular asterisk in his breakdown, given that I remember he was a fan of Mustang.
Egypt is especially surprising to me, once the 3rd largest film industry in the world (the 1950s). Likely the best candidates were all by Youssef Chahine. The quality took a dip in the 2000's and not sure when it would get back to a level where a nomination would be possible. Turkey has made some worthy films as well. But there may be a bias against countries from this part of the world for the most part.