Oscar submission deadline has passed for International Feature

Just a heads up that we forgot to mention. The deadline for countries to submit to the Oscars for Best International Feature Film passed on December 1st (the deadline is usually October 1st but they had two extra months this year due to COVID-19). All told 89 submissions have been announced (all accounted for on our Oscar charts) so we probably won't have a record breaking amount of titles. That said, 89 is a fluid number. The final "official" list generally includes a title or two that hadn't been announced previously and generally one or two of the ones that were announced are absent for vague reasons. All in all the list is made up of 33% debut filmmakers and 34% female directors so it's a "fresh voices" year. Only eight countries sent filmmakers who've already been nominated or who've made the finals. I'm on pins and needles to dive deeper into stats as I suspect the Academy will announce the full list very soon.

While we wait for the Official List we'll be sprucing up the other Oscar charts :) which we know need updates.

UPDATE: And here's the Golden Globes list of international hopefuls. Historically they have a different list than Oscar and also allow for more than one movie per country. 

In defense of Glenn Close as "Maw-Maw"

by Juan Carlos Ojano

Adapted from J.D. Vance’s controversial memoir about his family in the Appalachians, Hillbilly Elegy opened to harshly negative reviews from critics, but the film is not really out of the awards conversation. What was seemingly a slam dunk Oscar contender given the pedigree of its cast is now caught in the critics/audience divide, something that has become a commonality these past few years (Green Book, Bohemian Rhapsody, Joker, etc). Just look at the critics and audience scores the film got in Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic.

ROTTENTOMATOES: Tomatometer: 26% / Audience Score: 85%
METACRITIC Metascore: 39 (generally unfavorable) / User Score: 7.9 (generally favorable)

The most significant Oscar push for the film will undoubtedly be seven-time oscar nominee Glenn Close for Best Supporting Actress. She plays Mamaw, J.D.’s grandmother and de facto guardian when his mother Bev (Amy Adams) spirals into heroin addiction. This role comes after a surprising Best Actress loss at the 91st Academy Awards for her performance in The Wife.  Absurdly overdue for a win, Close came to this particular Supporting Actress race as a preordained frontrunner. However, the dismal critical reception of the film immediately cast doubt on her chances. Some now feel she won't be nominated at all. Or, that she doesn't deserve to be which is unfair on Close’s part, in my humble opinion...

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Showbiz History: A Very Meryl Streep Kind of Day

5 random things that happened on this day, December 8th, in showbiz history

1861 Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès born in Paris to boot factory owners. He would eventually become a stage magician and then in the early days of the silent era, a popular filmmaker. He is often regarded as the father of visual effects so he really ought to be more canonized given that that's the kind of movie the public cares most about for many many years now. You might recall Ben Kingsley played him in Scorsese's Hugo.

Gene Kelly, Meryl Streep, and Matthias Schoenaerts after the jump...

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Almost There: Saoirse Ronan in "The Lovely Bones"

by Cláudio Alves

Oscar-wise, Saoirse Ronan is an interesting case study. The Irish actress was only thirteen when she got her first nomination for her supporting turn in 2007's Atonement. From the start, she was seen as a prodigy, a young performer of uncommon talent and even rarer maturity whose characterizations seemed wise beyond their years. Still, one could have easily believed Ronan would go the way of other Oscar-honored child actors, fading into obscurity or just falling off AMPAS' radar. As luck would have it, things turned out differently. 

Ronan shares with Jodie Foster (nominated at 14), Sal Mineo and Natalie Wood (both nominated at 17) the honor of being the only underage Oscar nominees to be nominated again in adulthood. This year, Saoirse is back in the conversation thanks to Francis Lee's introspective Ammonite, though the picture's somewhat cold reception and austere nature might repel the Academy. In the past, Ronan's been lucky, conquering nods nearly every time she was in contention – Atonement, Brooklyn, Lady Bird, Little Women. Still, no lucky streak is perfectly continuous and without bumps. Just look at 2009's The Lovely Bones…

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Link Bonanza

• The Guardian interviews Anya Taylor-Joy on her passion for acting, Emma, and The Queens Gambit
• AV Club Oscar Isaac to play Solid Snake in the film adaptation of video game Metal Gear Solid
• Atlantic a wonderful interview with David Fincher about grievances with Hollywood, the death of midbudget movies, and Mank

After the jump our streaming future, Catherine O'Hara, rising Egyptian cinema, MTV Movie Awards, new Christmas albums, and more...

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