by Nathaniel R
"Holy Spider" will be released in the US, dates TBA
Lots to tell you about today in the Best International Feature Film race. We are just six days away from the deadline for countries to submit their representative film for consideration at the upcoming Oscars but we know one country that won't be submitting and that's Russia since they're boycotting us given which side we fall on in their war on Ukraine.
We generally know most of the list before that deadline due to press releases from all around the world. But not all. There are usually about 90ish entries and we have 70 announced thus far. You might remember that last year the Academy chucked their (very good and transparent) tradition of releasing the full official list of submissions in early October. If they continue that this year we won't have exact counts for awhile which is quite sad since those films need all the attention they can get and they only have a short window to get that since the all but 10 of them will be culled on December 21st when the shortlist is announced. What's more we thrive on statistics and factoids when getting obsessed with this niche window into global cinema and you cant do that without the exact list. ANYWAY, sorry about all the minutae. There are quite a few interesting new submissions / factoids to share with you after the jump...
Boy From Heaven
🇩🇰 🇸🇪 HOLY SPIDER (Ali Abassi) / BOY FROM HEAVEN (Tarik Saleh)
Denmark (14 nominations, 4 wins, and 2 additional finalists from 59 submissions)
Sweden (16 nominations, 3 wins, and 3 additional finalists from 62 submissions)
Both Denmark and Sweden chose films set in the Middle East. Holy Spider (reviewed at Cannes) is about a female journalist and a serial killer who is preying on sex workers in Iran. Boy From Heaven (reviewed at Cannes) is about a power struggle at an Islamic school. Ali Abassi, who was previously submitted by Sweden for 2018 film Border, was born in Iran but moved to Sweden in 2002. He's now being submitted by Denmark for reasons we can only assume are financing and team related? Tarik Saleh is a Swedish native but his father is Egyptian. Both submissions are reminders of how Sweden and Denmark have changed culturally with their relatively welcoming borders over the decades. Before anyone gets mad, please note the word "relatively". It's all relative of course and as with all countries everywhere, there are divisive politics around immigration everywere as well as pendulum swings in public opinion about these matters.
Utopia will release Holy Spider in the US but Boy From Heaven does not yet have US distribution. Lots more info on Denmark & Oscar here (Statistically speaking, they're Oscar's favourite country at the moment.)
🇦🇷 ARGENTINA, 1985
Argentina (7 nominations and 2 wins from 49 submissions)
We once did a list that we're now trying to find in the archives about which actors have been in the most films submitted to this category from their home countries. Surely Ricardo Dárin would place by now! This is the 8th submission from Argentina that he's starred in including nominees Wild Tales (2014), Son of the Bride (2001) and winner The Secret in Their Eyes (2009). Elisa reviewed this out of Venice and thinks it's a crowd-pleaser but wasn't personally impressed. This film comes to Amazon Prime soon.
🇫🇷 SAINT OMER (Alice Diop)
France (38 nominations, 9 wins, and 3 additional finalists from 68 submissions)
With this submission Alice Diop becomes the first black female director submitted by France. On an entirely different note, it's interesting that shortly after France changed their submission committee to avoid Cannes having too much pull (after the committee chose challenging Palme winner Titane over the accessible but also brilliant Happening) they went with a Venice hit that is shaping up to be a critical darling but might not be accessible enough for voters (just like last year). We don't yet know how the Academy will react to this slow academic feeling courtroom drama about an upsetting infanticide case. But if Oscar doesn't embrace it, you'll surely hear griping that France should have chosen the more accessible critical hit One Fine Morning, which they were also considering, instead. Still, having too many worthy films to choose from each year is a good problem to have and France almost always has it. Reviewed at TIFF by Abe and at Venice by Elisa. Saint Omer will be released by Super in the US, though no date has been announced yet.
FEMALE DIRECTORS AND FRANCE. This is the second consecutive year they've chosen a female director to represent the country. What's more in the past two years both of the likely runner-ups were by women, too. Despite never sending their most famous female auteurs Claire Denis and Agnes Varda, they've done a better job than many countries at honoring women behind the camera. France first sent a female director back in 1975 with Marguerite Duras' India Song, and got their first female directed nomination with Diane Kurys' Entre Nous in 1983. Their other submissions in this regard were Josiane Balasko's funny and sexy French Twist (1995), Agnes Jaoui's The Taste of Others (2000, nominee), Daniele Thompson's Avenue Montagne (2006, finalist), Marjane Satrapi's wonderful animated adaptation Persepolis (2007), Valerie Donzelli's restless inventive memoir Declaration of War (2011), Denis Gamze Erguven's excellent Mustang (2015, nominee), and Julia Ducournau's bizarre and gripping Titane (2021)
🇭🇰WHERE THE WIND BLOWS (Philip Yung)
Hong Kong (3 nominations and 1 additional finalist from 41 submissions)
Aaron Kwok and TFE's all time favourite Asian (male) movie star Tony Leung Chiu-Wai headline this true story crime drama about two corrupt cops in the 1960s. The amount of worthy films that Oscar has ignored from Hong Kong is alarming like the hugely influential Come Drink With Me, the masterpiece In the Mood for Love, and Infernal Affairs a mainstream hit so thrillingly plotted that it inspired a Best Picture winning remake, The Departed and won Best Picture. We haven't seen this one yet but hopefully it's a worthy submission.
🇱🇺 ICARUS
Luxembourg (no results yet from 19 submissions)
Here's a very interesting statistic to close with. 2022 has obliterated a record in terms of the number of animated films submitted. Usually there's one ... there might have been 2 one year (it's possible I forgot). This year there are already four! Two animated documentaries (Armenia's Aurora Sunrise and Canada's Eternal Spring) and two narrative animated features with Kenya's superhero picture TeraStorm and this Greek mythology based film from Luxembourg.
Updated Predictions Here. In addition to the six films listed above the following countries have also announced in the past few days: Bangladesh, Bulgaria (they switched horses), Estonia, Kenya, Kyrgysztan, Italy, North Macedonia, Norway, and Peru.