(Pt 1) Everything you wanted to know about the International Feature Film race... but were afraid to ask
Saturday, November 2, 2024 at 4:00PM
NATHANIEL R in Best International Feature, Best International Film, Oscar Trivia, Oscars (24)

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

 

 

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:

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

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”…

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. 

 

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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