Sundance 2023 World Cinema Competition Program

by Nathaniel R

Kiti Manver stars in "MAMACRUZ"

The Sundance Film festival is just a month plus away (January 19th-29th) with tickets going on sale December 13th for online packages, December 16th for in person packages, and January 12th for individual films. We are always very excited about the World Cinema Program which usually has great finds not to mention future Oscar submissions. For example the 2022 roster included five current Oscar hopefuls: Bolivia's Utama (Grand Jury Prize), Finland's Girl Picture (Audience Award), Brazil's Mars One, Australia's You Won't Be Alone, and Ukraine's Klondike and most of the other titles were also very well received. What treasures await us this year?

Here is the list of films. Which should we prioritize for Team Experience coverage in January? 

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International Feature Race - Part 2: The Auteurs

by Nathaniel R

To broaden your appreciation of this year's Best International Feature Film Oscar race we already looked at some overall trivia. Now let's look at some stats involving the artists behind the camera. We'll highlight 14 of the directors in the mix this year from legends, to debuts, to queer artists, to a handful of filmmakers that we've interviewed already....

LEGENDS & MASTERS

Park Chan-wook. Photographed by Oh Suk Kuhn

• Park Chan Wook (South Korea's Decision to Leave) 
Remarkably this 59 year-old auteur and Academy member has never been submitted by South Korea before despite a rich filmography with classics like The Handmaiden, Thirst, Lady Vengeance, Oldboy and Joint Security Area behind him...

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Best International Film Reviews: Croatia, Italy, and Portugal

by Cláudio Alves

Let's continue our travels through the Best International Film Oscar submissions, with a focus on Southern European cinema this time. Specifically, today's subjects are the films from Italy, Croatia, and my beloved Portugal. This is a tale of one victor and two persevering losers who still manage to send in new films for consideration every year. While Italy is the category's reigning champion with eleven wins, Croatia and Portugal have yet to be nominated. They've never even made it into the shortlists. In the latter case, the country holds the record for the most submissions without a single nod. With great sadness in my heart, I must say that Portugal's Oscar fate is unlikely to change this season…

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Best International Film Reviews: Belgium, Pakistan, and Ukraine

by Cláudio Alves

The most wonderful time of the year is upon us. No, not the holiday season. No, not even the awards season as a whole. It's time to delve deep into the submissions for Best International Film before the Academy's committees whittle down the 92 titles to a measly 15-wide shortlist from which the entire voting body will choose its five nominees. The list will be made public on December 21st, so until then, we shall explore the race's offerings, from its major contenders to more obscure selections. To start things off, let's look into three titles that feel bound to make the shortlist, both for reasons of quality, reputation, and international controversy…

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International Feature Race - Part 1. The Numbers, Genres, and Trivia

by Nathaniel R

Can "Decision to Leave" become the second nominee from South Korea?

We can no longer wait around twiddling our thumbs for the Academy's official press releases. AMPAS used to be so prompt with the Best International Feature Film category. In the past few years they've dropped the ball. The deadline for submission was six weeks ago and though Academy members have already been screening the films for a month there's still no press release from AMPAS about the "official list". If they continue this unfortunate new habit that means that nearly a hundred films each year will fail to get two months of media attention that they fully deserve before most of them are eliminated. The Academy will narrow down this year's 92 accepted submissions to just 15 on December 21st (barely a month away). And from those 15 they'll announce the 5 nominees on January 24th. You can see the current predictions here and the full charts detailing all 92 contenders. We assume that Malta's entry, Carmen, was not accepted due to too much English language since it's the only submission from our research that's not on their screening list. 

Anyway, if you smoosh all 92 films together into one imaginary film you'd get something like the following:

A family drama, with a political angle (and probably involving immigration of some kind), which comes from a early to mid-career director who is still rising. The film will be trilingual with dialogue in Arabic, French, and Spanish. It will be 107 minutes long. 

We'll adjust the following stats and trivia IF Oscar's official press release begs to differ by a film or two (which sometimes happens) whenever it arrives. Or maybe they just won't release it this year? So Let's talk stats, trivia, genres, and themes...

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