Best International Feature Film: Croatia, Finland, Japan and more...

FEAR

Since we last posted there have been five more countries announcing their submissions for our favourite Oscar category that doesn't include "actress" in the title. Find out about those movies after the jump.

BULGARIA
Bulgaria has opted to send a film called Fear by Ivaylo Hristov. It's about a widow on the Bulgarian/Turkish border who meets an African refugee. And yes, it's yet another 2021 film that's shot in black and white (so many this year!)...

Click to read more ...

Seven new Oscar submissions, French finalists, and a potential Israel/Palestine conflict

by Nathaniel R

LET IT BE MORNING

The announcements of Oscar submissions from various countries are rolling in fast now. If you've missed previous posts we've already covered the submissions from Cambodia, Ecuador, Morocco, Poland, Serbia, Switzerland,  Albania, Ireland, Kyrgzstan, Slovenia, Ukraine, Armenia, Canada, Colombia, Peru, Germany, and Spain and have reviewed three of the films. In today's huge update we have finalists lists from Chile, France, and Sweden as well as official submissions from Greece, Hungary, The Netherlands, Somalia, South Korea, and Taiwan. But let's start with Israel as we foresee complications.

ISRAEL
Each year Israel's own Oscar style prize "The Ophir" is held around this time and whichever film wins becomes the automatic submission. They've only run into trouble with this system twice in the past (once for a film that had too much English and the other time with a tie so they had to vote again for Oscar purposes). But this year might be another. Let It Be Morning, with a largely Palestinian cast from source material by a Palestinian author, was the big winner at the Ophirs so it became the Israeli submission. While the director Erin Kolirin (of The Band's Visit fame) is Israeli, the film is about Palestinians and earlier this summer, the cast refused to attend the Cannes premiere because the festival labelled the film as an Israeli film. One imagines they'll object to this film representing Israel at the Oscars, for the same reason. Potentially complicating matters further is that Palestine also submits to the Oscars...

Click to read more ...

It's 2002 all over again with Spain's Oscar submission choice

by Nathaniel R

We hinted that this could happen again and it has. In 2002 the Spanish Academy of Arts and Cinematographic Sciences passed over Pedro Almodóvar's internationally fêted Talk to Her for the country's Oscar submission in favor of Mondays in the Sun, a Fernando León de Aranoa film starring Javier Bardem. Now 19 years later history repeats itself as Spain has passed over Pedro Almodóvar's internationally fêted Parallel Mothers for their Oscar submission in favor of The Good Boss, a Fernando León de Aranoa film starring Javier Bardem. 

Now we wait and see if history will be yet more repetitive. In 2002 Oscar voters ignored Mondays in the Sun but honored Talk to Her with nominations for Director and Screenplay. We doubt that history will repeat itself that fully since Parallel Mothers is considerably less flashy a film but you never know. Either way it went today the Javier Bardem/Penélope Cruz household would have a reason to celebrate so congrats to Spain's most famous movie star couple and to Aranoa, too.

Submission charts for more info and current predictions. You can also follow along on Letterboxd.

Armenia, Canada, Colombia, and Peru announce their Oscar submissions

by Nathaniel R

DRUNKEN BIRDS

We have four more submission for Oscar's Best International Feature Film race to share.

CANADA
Remember that nude asshole boyfriend "Fermin" from Alfonso Cuarón's Roma who knocked our heroine up and then abandoned her? The actor who played him, Jorge Antonio Guerrero, could be back in the International Feature Oscar race. Guerrero headlines this year's Canadian Oscar submission Drunken Birds, which is about a man on the run from a cartel leader who relocates to Quebec and hopes to find a woman there who fled from the same cartel. The film, in French and Spanish, comes from Canadian director Ivan Grbovic and just played TIFF...

Click to read more ...

Albania, Ireland, Kyrgyzstan, Slovenia, and Ukraine choose their Oscar submissions

by Nathaniel R

We have five more Oscar submissions for the Best International Feature Oscar to share, all from countries that have never been nominated. With 13 official contenders we're probably around 15% there -- we don't even have enough "official" contenders for a full finalist list (of 15) yet...

ALBANIA is going with Jonid Jorgji's road trip comedy Three Lions Heading to Venice about filmmakers headed to the festival who meet adult movie actresses on the way, derailing their plans...

Click to read more ...