International Feature Race - 15 Contenders Thus Far
Sunday, September 1, 2024 at 5:27PM
NATHANIEL R in Asian cinema, Best International Feature, Best International Film, Israel, Maite Alberdi, Ophir Awards, Oscars (24), Palestine, Rithy Panh, South Korea, documentaries

by Nathaniel R

Though I know I've been absent from writing, I have been updating the International Feature Film Oscar charts to track the submissions. So far 15 countries have announced their submissions, some of which are available to US viewers. After the jump, the list so far, impending decisions from Israel and South Korea, and general observations...

Chart 1 (A-G) for more info

 

 

Of these four submissions, two filmmakers have seen their films embraced by the Academy: Rithy Panh's (Cambodia)  genius clay figure doc  Missing Picture was recognized in Foreign Language Feature and Maite Alberti (Chile) was nominated for both The Mole Agent AND Eternal Memory albeit in the Doc Feature category rather than in this one. This time, though, they're both submitted for scripted dramas with actors rather than their usual mode as filmmakers. 

CHART 2 (G-N) for more info

 

 

With the exception of Lithuania's Laurynas Bareisa who was submitted just two years ago for Pilgrims, all of these filmmakers are new to the Oscar race in this category. 

CHART 3 (P-Y) for more info 

 

 

In this small group we see a glimpse of the trend of documentaries rising with the submissions from Palestine and Uruguay. It used to be semi-infrequent that countries would submit documentaries in the International Feature race but this is happening with far more regularity in the past decade. I'm personally not thrilled about this since documentaries have their own category and I'm a 'spread the wealth'  man but it is what it is. The Palestine doc is a collection of shorts about the current war on Gaza from nearly two dozen filmmakers. Uruguay's submission, in contrast, is an intimate two person conversation. 

WHO WILL BE NEXT TO ANNOUNCE?

It's always tough to say but we do know that Greece might not be submitting this year due to infighting and controversy/confusion around their selection committee and process. Most of the films have withdrawn from competition at this juncture. We also have announcement dates from some countries: Romania (Sept 2), Indonesia and Portugal (Sept 11), Spain (Sept 18), Denmark and Sweden (Sept 19), Switzerland (Sept 25), Philippines (Sept 27), India (Sept 28). The two most successful countries in Oscar history in this category (Italy and France) often announce quite late in the season. 

SOUTH KOREAN FINALISTS
By the time you read this they may have already announced but they were looking at 15 films (a handful of which are already available to rent or stream in the US.)

 

 

ISRAELI FINALISTS
Israel always submits the Ophir winner for Best Film (unless it's not eligible for some reason). So these are the films competing for that honor with Come Closer leading in terms of nomination count: 

 

 

 

 

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