International Oscar Race Pt 3 - The Movie Stars
Wednesday, December 8, 2021 at 11:23AM by Nathaniel R
We fight to keep our title each year as 'the site that gives you the most when it comes to Oscar's Best International Feature Film race.' Nevertheless, even if we aren't that anymore with all the corporate sites and the indies now covering the race, at least we were influential in popularizing the coverage!
Speaking of popular. How many of the films have stars that movie-fans will recognize? Let's look at the international stars with fanbases outside their home countries, curiously it's light on familiar actresses this year but the men make up for that...
Celebrity!
JAVIER BARDEM Spain's The Good Boss
The Oscar winning movie star has been a headliner in Oscar favourites from Mexico (Biutiful), Spain (The Sea Inside), US (No Country for Old Men), and the UK (Skyfall). His career went a bit quiet for a couple of years (presumably due to raising babies with wife Penelope Cruz) but he's been back with a vengeance in 2021, in the ensemble of the sci-fi hit Dune, co-starring with Nicole Kidman in Being the Ricardos, and headlining Spain's latest Oscar submission, the business comedy The Good Boss.
Fun fact: In addition to his 3 acting nominations and 1 Oscar win, he's been in 5 movies submitted for the Oscar race in this category: High Heels, Mondays in the Sun, Biutiful, The Sea Inside and The Good Boss; 2 of them were nominated so far and one of those took home the win.
NOOMI RAPACE Iceland's Lamb
Swedish star Noomi Rapace came to international fame as the star of the original cinematic adaptation of the best-seller The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009). She's appeared in Danish, Swedish, British, and American films in her career but Lamb marks her first Icelandic feature and her first time in an Oscar submission in this category. It's something of a homecoming since Rapace lived in Iceland for some years as a child.
DAN STEVENS Germany's I'm Your Man
Remember when people thought British star Dan Stevens was crazy for leaving a super successful TV show (Downton Abbey) much earlier than planned? It proved to be a savvy if risky move because his gifts extended far beyond Cousin Matthew. He's demonstrated remarkable range ever since but, even knowing that, it was a surprise to see him deploy fluent German for a winning performance as an android in Germany's Oscar submission, a sci-fi tinged romantic dramedy. [I'm Your Man reviewed]
TILDA SWINTON Colombia's Memoria
She's Scottish by ancestry though alien in starpower. Still, when Italy didn't submit the masterful I Am Love in its year, we can't say we ever anticipated her headlining another possibility in this particularly category. [Memoria reviewed]
You may well know (and already love) them.
And, if not, join us in doing so!
ANDERS DANIELSEN LIE - Norway's The Worst Person in the World
He's been director Joachim Trier's muse since their electric first collaboration, Reprise (2006). We thought their follow up Oslo August 31st (2011) would remain his greatest screen performance but then Worst Person came along. He doesn't act nonstop since he's literally a doctor in Norway, but when he does it's always worth watching. In addition to occasional Norwegian films he also makes French films (Personal Shopper, Rodin, The Night Eats the World, Cleo & Paul). 2021 was a big year for him. The year began with the Norwegian World War II drama Betrayed and then both Bergman Island and Worst Person in the World hit Cannes. [Worst Person in the World reviewed]
Fun fact: He started as a child star at age 11, headlining a Norwegian film called Herman (1990) which actually opened in the US but he didn't act again until Reprise. Both his first and his second films were submitted for the Oscar in this category. Will the third submission (Worst Person...) be the charm?
VINCENT LINDON - France's Titane
One of France's most talented leading men. He's won both Cannes and the César as Best Actor for Measure of a Man (2015) along with numerous other honors. Other key films in his filmography: Betty Blue (1986), La Crise (1992... his first César nomination for Best Actor), La Haine (1995), The School of Flesh (1998), Friday Night (2002), La Moustache (2005), Welcome (2009), Bastards (2013), Diary of a Chambermaid (2015) and the biopic Rodin (2017). [Titane reviewed]
Fun fact: Though he's been a mainstay of French cinema for a long time, this is only his second Oscar submission after Betty Blue, one of his earliest films, where he had a small part as a young police officer.
ERICA RIVAS and NAHUEL PÉREZ BISCAYART and CECILIA ROTH in Argentina's The Intruder
Three of international cinema's finest. Erica Rivas is best known internationally as that bride on the verge of a nervous breakdown in Argentina's most recent and extremely excellent Osar nominee Wild Tales (2014). Biscayarat, who was born in Argentina but works frequently in Europe, previously starred in France's Oscar submission BPM (Beats Per Minute) which we're still angry about the Academy ignoring and was also seen in Oscar submissions from Austria (Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe in 2016) and Belarus (Persian Lessons in 2020 though it was disqualified as not Belarusan enough). Longtime star Cecilia Roth (All About My Mother and many more) is also in the movie in a smaller role.
TONI SERVILLO Italy's Hand of God
62 year old Servillo a stage actor/director is also a legend of Italian cinema, making his film debut in Death of a Neapolitan Mathematician (1992) though he wasn't really a movie star until later in life. He is best known stateside for the Oscar-winning The Great Beauty (2013), and the Oscar-nominated (for makeup) Il Divo (2008), as well as the Cannes hit and BAFTA and Globe-nominated mafia drama Gomorrah (2008). [Hand of God reviewed]
"The Now"
2021 was really good for these rising stars
YURIY BORISOV Finland's Compartment No. 6
This Russian actor, who turns 29 years today had a spectacular year... at least at film festivals. He headlined and won fine reviews for both a Cannes competition film (Compartment No 6) and a Venice competition film (Captain Volkonogov Escaped) and also had roles in other festival titles like Petrov's Flu (Cannes debut), Mama I'm Home (Venice debut), Gerda (Locarno debut) and yet another film release at home in Russia called The Riot. Six movies in one year and one of them a potential Oscar nominee; Compartment No 6 has a great shot at the finalist list.
AMIR JADIDI Iran's A Hero
The 37 year-old Iranian actor first hit screens seven years ago but after acclaim and awards attention at home for films like Cold Sweat (2018) and Zero Day (2020), A Hero is finally bringing him international eyes. He's up for Best Actor at this year's Asia Pacific Screen Awards. [A Hero reviewed]
FRANZ ROGOWSKI Austria's Great Freedom
The 35 year old German star already has an international following thanks to 2018's excellent Transit but 2021 felt like his busiest year yet. Early in the year 2020 holdover Undine (reviewed) finally got some more movie theater time including in the US, he co-starred in Italy's would-be blockbuster Freaks Out (reviewed), and headlined an Austrian horror film Luzifer (which isn't released yet). To end the year he headlines the Austrian Oscar submission Great Freedom about a gay man in prison just after surviving the concentration camps of World War II.
Where have I seen them before?
GRÉGOIRE COLIN Armenia's Should the Wind Drop
He's the star of this Armenian drama but if he looks familiar to you you're probably a fan of Claire Denis work or early 90s French-language cinema. He previously co-starred in five of Denis' features: Nénette et Boni, Beau Travail, 35 Shots of Rum, The Intruder and Bastards. He got famous young headlining Agnieszka Holland's Olivier Olivier (1992) when he was just 17 and then hit the ensemble of the French classic Queen Margot (1994) at just 20.
ALFRED ENOCH Sweden's Tigers
The 33 year old British actor, best known for the US hit How To Get Away With Murder sports a blonde do as a professional soccer player in this Swedish drama which takes place in Italy. The film is a mix of Swedish (the leading man and his family and girlfriend), Italian (most of the athletes and businessmen), and English (Enoch plays an American)
JAMES FRECHEVILLE Czech Republic's Zatopek
He plays famous Australian runner Ron Clarke in this Czech sports drama who visits the famous Czech athlete, his role model, Zatopek. If Frecheville looks familiar to you it's because he was the young male lead in Australia's international hit crime drama Animal Kingdom (2010) and one of the young amorous sons in Adore (2013)... but a decade older now.
ANTONIO GUERRERO Canada's Drunken Birds
If his stern handsome face brings discomfort, it's simply that he played the asshole boyfriend Fermin, the very naked guy in Roma. He's the star of Canada's submission and on the run from a cartel.
TOMASZ KOT Poland's Leave No Traces
He was the lead in the brilliant Oscar nominated romantic drama Cold War but he has a supporting role in their latest submission, a true story drama about a murdered student. He's very busy at the moment with three films in production as well as the signing as the lead in a TV miniseris about Nikola Testa.
HIDETOSHI NISHIJAMA Japan's Drive My Car
This is the first Oscar submission for the 50 year old Japanese star whose films haven't travelled to the US that often. Still, you may have seen him in Giorgio Armani ads and some of his more famous films include License to Live (1998), Dolls (2002), Sayonara Midori-Chan (2005) and Samurai's Promise (2018). He first came to fame playing a gay character on the TV series Asunaro White Paper (1993). He also voiced the character of Honjô in the Oscar nominated Miyazaki film The Wind Rises (2013). He was nominated for the Asia Pacific Screen Award Best Actor prize for Drive My Car. [Drive My Car reviewed and its screenplay, too]
JO IN-SUNG, KIM YOON-SEOK, JEONG MAN-SIK South Korea's Escape from Mogadishu
They've all done lots of work in South Korean film and/or television. And, as that's increasingly popular internationally maybe you've seen their work before!
Who and what are you rooting for in the International Feature Film race?
PART 1 - Overview: 93 films, 12 high profile submissions, longest & shortest films
PART 2 - Ten countries still waiting on their first nomination
OSCAR CHARTS
Reader Comments (9)
Just one nit to pick. Only 2 of Javier Bardem's films have been nominated for Foreign Film (so far). Both High Heels and Mondays in the Sun were passed over.
As for Anders Danielsen Lie, well, um, I found him a little too distracting in 22 July (this is a comment not a complaint). He played the real-life mass murderer of 77 people. I just couldn't help but think he was the hottest mass murderer ever and had a hard time working up the loathing for him that I felt in real life about the real mass murderer.
amy --oops i counted the win as a separate nom when i had already accounted for that.
I'm rooting for Anders Danielsen Lie to come and warm my bed.
Peggy Sue -- i think he has a line outside his own bedroom.
I would consider (Charlie's daughter) Geraldine Chaplin and Udo Kier in Dominican Republic's "Holy beasts" also "movie stars"... especially now in a year, when Udo did a fantastic turn in "Swan song".
But then again, for me even Nadine Labaki (from several previous international film noms) in this year's Israel's "Costa brava, Lebanon" is a movie star :)
I'm rooting for Finland's Compartment No.6 and I really loved the script also... especially the ending! One of the latest that I saw, which got shivers down my spine because of the ending, was Panama's "Plaza Catedral" - the text at the end - darn, I get shivers yet again, even from just thinking about it. And my favourite of the bunch is Estonia's coming of age tale full of colourful characters "On the water".. but I guess it does not count, being estonian myself... although I haven't liked that much our reps for many years in a row and now finally... such a sweet story.
Out from the mainsteam guesses so far - Bhutan and Belgium have very good movies this year. Belgium's about school bullies from a kids' perspective. And we know how much academy members turn attention to this subject matter - even last year's Hong Kong... that ended up being one of 5 nominated movies.
I met Nishijama when I was living in Japan. He's down to earth and really sweet guy. Have you watched 'What did you eat yesterday?' on Netflix? he plays one half of the gay couple.
I just saw "Great Freedom" and am now a huge an of Franz Rogowski. What a performance. I liked him in Ondine and Transit. But this one is really something. He has a tenderness and a swagger that are just magnetic.
Will you list the eligible films available on streaming, like last year?
Lenard -- good idea!