International Oscars - Estonia, Germany, Netherlands, South Korea, and Uruguay

by Nathaniel R

After that first round of news, we have more info on the International Oscar race to share. First, we have three more official submissions for the upcoming race: Estonia will submit the documentary Smoke, Sauna, Sisterhood; South Korea has gone very mainstream choosing the earthquake drama Concrete Utopia  (that probably means no nomination given that the Academy generally only pays attention to South Korea when they lean auteur... and even then they don't pay much attention despite South Korea having a very healthy and respected film industry); Finally, Uruguay will submit the comedy Family Album about a father and his teenage son forming a band. 

Even if those three films don't sound right up Oscar's alley, you really never know, do you? It all depends on how the volunteer voters who screen enough of the films to vote respond to their selections. We also now know two more unofficial finalist lists from Germany and Netherlands, both of which have won the category multiple times...

GERMANY (21 noms / 4 wins / 5 additional finalists)
Germany won the category last year with All Quiet on the Western Front. and with that film surpassed Denmark as the reigning 'favourite country' in Oscar's recent past (France & Italy are the all time leaders of course btu Denmark and Germany have totally been leading in the modern era). Germany doesn't have an official 'finalist list' as some countries do but they do reveal what films they're voting. They're choosing between the following twelve pictures. 

* The Director has had a film submitted to the Oscar race previously by Germany
** The director has already had a German film nominated in this category

• Afire (Christian Petzold*) - A dramedy about a group of friends on holiday together. Currently in US release. Petzold has weirdly only been submitted once (Barbara, 2012) but he's popular with cinephiles thanks to pictures like Phoenix (2014), Transit (2018), and Undine (2020)
• Anselm (Wim Wenders*) - A documentary on the artist Anselm Kiefer. Before Oscar's current trend of nominated documentaries in this category, Wenders almost got there with his dance picture Pina (2011) which was a finalist.
• Elaha (Mielna Aboyan) - A drama about a woman considering having her hymen reconstructed before a wedding
• The Ordinaries (Sophie Linnenbaum) - This reportedly absurd debut about a supporting character who wants to be a lead has been doing well at festivals.
• Orphea in Love (Axel Ranisch) - a contemporary reimagining of the Orpheus myth
• Sisi & I (Frauke Finsterwalder) - a biopic about Countess Irma and Empress Sisi in Greece together. Busy busy Sandra Huller (Anatomy of a Fall, Zone of Interest) stars as Irma with Susanne Wolff as Sisi who got her own biopic just last year with Corsage which made the Oscar finals
• The Teacher's Lounge (Ilker Catak) a drama about a teacher and a student suspected of theft
• The Theory of Everything (Timm Kröger) A thriller about a physics congress in the Alps in 1962
• Weekend Rebels (Marc Rothemund**) A dramedy about a family with an autistic son. Rothemund had a nominee back in 2006 with Sophie Scholl- The Final Days
• What You Can see From Here (Aron Lehmann) A drama about a girl who can forsee deaths
• A Whole Life (Hans Steinbichler) A drama covering 8 decades in a man's life
• A Woman (Jeanine Meerapfel) A documentary about Marie-Louise Chatelaine, who lost her parents and than a new family and moved from country to country and language to language.

The romantic drama Afire is currently in release in the US and Christian Petzold is regularly a hit with critics (his most popular film in the US being  

NETHERLANDS (7 noms | 3 wins | 3 additional finalists)
The Dutch have struggled to catch Oscar's imagination this century. But they were very popular with voters from 1986 through 1997, a stretch in which they won every time they got nominated. It's been 20 years since they managed a nomination though they have had three finalists including the brilliant World War II drama Black Book (2006). Their shortlist is 15 films long this year and none of the possible submittees have any Oscar history. 

• All Inclusive (Anielle Webster) - a vacation comedy hit at home
• Broken (Ben Verbong) - a romantic tragedy which is also a hit at the Dutch box office
• Faithfully Yours (Andre Van Duren) - a thriller about two women using each other as covers for their affairs
• Inside My Heart (Saskia Boddeka) - a documentary about a theater group for actors with disabilities
• Kiddo (Zara Dwinger) - a road trip movie in which an absentee mother kidnaps her daughter from her foster home
• Line of Fire (Roel Reine) - a drama about a discredited war hero
• Lost Transport (Saskia Diesing) - a WW II drama about Jewish prisoners and a German village
• The Man From Rome (Jaap van Heusden) a comic thriller about a Catholic priest attracted to a mute woman
• Mascot (Remy van Heugten) - a drama about a family struggling with their teenage son's extremism. This one's been making the indie festival rounds.
• Summer Brother (Joren Molter) - a drama about a young boy caring for his disabled brother
• Sweet Dreams (Ena Sendijarevic) - The aftermath of the death of a Dutch plantation owner who leaves the estate to his illegitimate son. The actress Renée Soutendijk won Best Performance at Locarno for this
• That Afternoon (Nafiss Nia) - a two character drama about lives intersecting. 
• Under the Naked Sky (Lilan Sijbesma) - a young girl in a mobile home cares for her disabled mother
• Under Water (Edgar Kapp & Kuba Szutkowski) - a drama about a woman returning to her childhood home to confront her mother
• When We Lost to the Germans (Guido van Driel) - a drama taking place after the 1974 World Cup finals.

Comments

[Glenn Dunks]

I don't think either country would select them, but it would be amusing to see Germany nominated for the Wim Wenders film (Anselm) as well as Japan nominated for the Wim Wenders film (Perfect Days).

I reckon Australia will go with SHAYDA btw. It's predominantly in Farsi (I believe) and produced by Cate Blanchett which, if SAG strikes end, could give it a boost.

I'm also very curious about France. ANATOMY OF A FALL has gotta be extremely close (to the word, even) balance between English and French with a bit of German. More so than The Square, which was nominated.