Interview: 'Goddamned Asura' director Lou Yi-an on his multi-layered crime drama

by Juan Carlos Ojano

Inspired by a 2014 real-life killing, Goddamned Asura explores the lives of six people involved in a ramdom shooting in a night market, including the perpetrator - a troubled teenager named Jan Wen. The film follows not only the lead-up to the shooting incident, but also the aftermath of the characters as they face the repercussions of the actions of Jan Wen.The result is a somber exploration of class, isolation, and violence that is unfortunately still timely and universal.

Goddamned Asura is Taiwan's official submission for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards. In this interview, co-writer and director Lou Yi-an expounds on the origins and themes of the story as well as explaining some terms with their cultural context compared to their English translation...

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"World War III" and other new titles join the Oscar race

Bosnia, Iran, Nepal, Portugal, and Romania have announced their submissions to the 95th Oscars. Here's a little info about those choices... 

🇮🇷 WORLD WAR III (Houman Seyyedi)
IRAN  (3 nominations, 2 wins, and 2 additional finalists from 28 submissions)

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Belgium's "Close", Venezuela's "The Box" and Israel's "Cinema Sabaya" join the Oscar race

With 43 entries thus far, we're just a few titles short of the halfway mark on submissions for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Oscars. There's usually a little over 90 films. You can see the full submission charts here but if that's too much all at once for you, here are the most recent three countries to announce....

🇦🇲 CLOSE (Lukas Dhont)
BELGIUM (7 nominations and 2 additional finalists from 47 submissions)

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7 new Oscar submissions for Best International Feature

We're now up to 40 submissions in the upcoming Oscar race for Best International Feature Film. You can see the full charts here but if that's too much all at once for you, here are the latest countries to announce from Armenia to Slovakia, some going with films that are currently playing at TIFF...

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France chooses 5 finalists for the coveted Oscar submission

by Nathaniel R

France is the most-nominated country of all time in the Best International Feature Film Oscar race. What's more their tally is so impressive it will be probably be several decades before anyone catches up (IF that ever happens). Though they don't lead in winners (Italy holds that distinction) they haven't ever had a true slump of being passed over for nominations* so they're always crucial to watch. Consider the crazy impressive stats. They are the only country to submit to each and every Oscar race in this category. Their total honors include 38 nominations, 9 wins, and 3 additional finalists from 67 submissions. Before this became a competitive category in 1956, they won 3 Honorary Awards.

What will they select this year? The Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée, the agency responsible for choosing France's submission has named five finalists, all but one of which are from female directors. Here's a little detail on each film (if the title is linked it goes to our festival coverage)...

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