(Pt 1) Everything you wanted to know about the International Feature Film race... but were afraid to ask

by Nathaniel R

BEAUTIFUL EVENING, BEAUTIFUL DAY - Croatia's gay entry

Though 89 films were originally announced as submitting to the Best International Feature Film Academy Award competition this year, only 85 became official contenders. We’ve done a deep dive of the list, updated the charts, and crunched some stats and sought out any patterns to bring you this report. We'll start with the LGBTQ+ competitors, genre classifications, chronology of stories, running time stats, and unintentional 'twins' if you will. Hope you enjoy...

Genres & Recurring Elements

THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG - Germany's politically charged Iranian family in turmoil thriller.

Crime dramas are too plentiful to count this season - we don't want to do the math! There's also the usual generous helping of highly political family dramas, period pieces, and war adjacent stories. At least four films deal with a missing person of some kind (Algeria, Nepal, Panama, Turkey). Trigger warning: rape factors heavily into the storylines of a few of the entries (Albania, Indonesia, UK) and probably more that we aren't yet aware of. The forever-charged topic of patriarchal societies and the politicization of female bodies is also present in one way or another in several films (Austria, Belgium, Costa Rica, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Kenya, and presumably many more).

We always get a few black and white pictures in the long list and this year there are four (Croatia, Denmark, Peru, and Portugal).

There are also usually a few sports-related films and this year we have five: horceracing (Argentina), tennis (Belgium), wrestling (Bangladesh), boxing (Colombia) and football (Iraq).

AND SO IT BEGINS - Philippines submission. Photo: Cine Diaz

The number of documentaries submitted in this category has been rising over the years, even though documentary features have their own categories. This year we have six that could also be compete for Best Documentary Feature if they meet that category's different eligibility requirements: Ecuador, Palestine, Paraguay, Philippines, Senegal, and Sweden.

Finally, while two isn’t a trend, here are some unintentional “pairs” we noticed:

THE GLASSWORKER - Pakistan's first traditionally animated feature is one of two animated submissions

• Armenia and Bulgaria’s films both revolve around the fall of Communism.
• Cambodia and Czech Republic deliver this year's journalism dramas.
• Latvia and Pakistan offer up the only submitted animated films.
• Ireland and Spain's entries both dramatize true music business stories
• Italy and Slovakia submitted films with World War II as context/background but given that they’re the only two this has to be an all time low number for the category.
• Portugal and Senegal both take on the hot topic of colonialism albeit in very different ways
• Hungary and Venezuela have this year's medical dramas.
• Malaysia and Switzerland both have pairs of siblings as protagonists.
• Ukraine and UK's films are murder investigation procedurals. 

LGBTQ+ Interest

EMILIA PÉREZ © Shanna Besson

Since we haven’t seen all 85 pictures, we can’t say with great confidence exactly how many of them hold queer appeal, but it should be noted that at least the following titles (or roughly 8% of the contending films) feature LGBTQ+ themes or characters:

• Argentina’s Kill the Jockey (queer characters)
  If you've never seen Luis Ortega's previous Oscar submission, El Angel (2018), you should. [Reviewed]

• Croatia's Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day (queer characters)
  This black and white drama is about gay filmmaker friends in the 1950s and a Communist loyalist charged with sabotaging them.

• France’s Emilia Perez (trans-themed)
  It's proving divisive but it's high profile enough to compete for more than just International Feature. [Currently Predicted | Reviewed Pro | Reviewed Con]

• Italy’s Vermiglio (at least one character)
  No spoilers. This 1940s family drama gives you so much detailed character study in its beautifully paced expansive two hours. [Currently Predicted | Reviewed | Interview]

THREE KILOMETERS TO THE END OF THE WORLD - Romania's entry

• Romania’s Three Kilometers to the End of the World (homophobia-themed)
  This drama about a gay teenager and his homophobic family won the Queer Palm at Cannes this year. [Reviewed]

• Tunisia’s Take My Breath (intersex-themed)
  Nada Mezni Hafaiedh's feature about a 23 year old intersex individual won Best Film at the Rotterdam Arab Film festival. 

• UK’s Santosh (one character)
  No spoilers. This British film is a narrative debut from documentarian Sandhya Suri takes place in rural Northern India and follows a murder investigation by two female police officers.

We hope we spot more queer characters as we find our way to screenings!

Period Pieces?

MAI MARTABA - Nigeria's submission

All films reflect the era in which they were created of course but some stories are definitely set in other time periods. Here is how it breaks down chronologically this year in terms of “eras”…

• Ancient- Nigeria

• 1700s - Austria

• 1800s - Hungary

• Early 1900s - Denmark, Greece, and Portugal

• 1940s - Italy, Slovakia, and Vietnam

• 1950s - Chile, Croatia 

• 1960s - Czech Republic, Iceland (the ‘younger’ half of it)

• 1970s - Brazil, Cambodia, Serbia, and South Korea

• 1980s - Taiwan

• 1990s - Bulgaria, Spain, Ukraine, and Venezuela

• Future (!) 22nd Century - Dominican Republic

As far as we know the rest of the films (or roughly 72% of them) take place in our current era (or recent past) or are set in undefined time periods. But we haven’t seen most of them yet so we could be wrong on a few titles here or there.

Longest Films

LIFE - Turkey's entry is well over three hours

1. Turkey’s Life (193 minutes)
   A man searches for his missing fiancée on the streets of Istanbul. Zeki Dermirkubuz's drama is popular with Turkish film critics. It's the second longest film in competition for any Oscar this year (outside of The Brutalist)... at least that we know of. That said, we haven't seen the Documentary Feature eligibility list yet. 

2. Germany’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig (168 minutes)
   Opens November 27th in the US in limited release. We cannot imagine that it will miss the finals in this category. [Currently Predicted | Reviewed]

3. Nepal’s Shambhala (150 minutes)
   Currently up for two Golden Horse Awards including Best Cinematography.

4. Serbia’s Russian Counsel (147 minutes)

5. South Korea’s 12:12 The Day (141 minutes)
   Available to rent in the US online.

You know how I feel about extra long films. What can I say, I'm impatient! In the best cases they fly by (The Brutalist) or legitimately keep you riveted throughout (The Seed of the Sacred Fig) but even in the best cases, it's easy to imagine a slightly stronger film if the filmmakers weren't so precious about their every image and scene. The Seed of the Sacred Fig, for example, is a masterclass of slow-burn build but then in the final act during the boil over it slows into repetition. Argh! 

Shortest Films

DAHOMEY still © Les Films du Bal - Fanta Sy

1. Senegal’s Dahomey (67 minutes)
   Mati Diop, who brought us the incredible Atlantics (which made the finals and should have been nominated), is back with a documentary entry about museum artifacts. [Reviewed]

2. Montenegro’s Supermarket (75 minutes)

3. Ecuador’s Behind the Mist (80 minutes)
   Another documentary, this one (in 3D!) is about an attempt to scale Mount Everest.

4. Colombia’s La Suprema (83 minutes)

5. Tajikistan’s Melody (85 minutes)
   If the name sounds familiar that's because Tajikistan said they were submitting this drama about a teacher and sick children last year but it ended up on the list this year instead. 

In Part Two we'll talk directors and actors in this year's Best International Feature Film Oscar race. Stay tuned and explore the Oscar charts. 

Comments

[Yehon]

Israel also sent a LGBTQ film (Come Closer), but it's somewhat of a spoiler (comes mid-film-ish).

[Mike in Canada]

Sad that All That We Imagine as Light couldn't find a country to submit it - it'll make it harder to get eyeballs on it.

[par]

"Turkey’s Life (193 minutes)
A man searches for his missing fiancée on the streets of Istanbul."

every street, from the sound of it

[Fabio Dantas Flappers]

Great expectations for France, Germany and Italy.

Am I the only one who likes extra long movies?
That's never been a problem for me, quite the opposite. 😂