"Dear Comrades!" and Russia at the Oscars

by Nathaniel R

Russia has announced that Andrey Konchalovskiy's Dear Comrades!, a Grand Jury Prize winner in Venice, will be their selection for the Oscars. This is the third time Russia has selected Konchalovsky to submit them. The 83 year old director is deeply tied to Russian cinematic history. He's the elder brother of Russia's most Oscar-loved director Nikita Mikhalkov (Burnt by the Sun) and he began his career writing and working for the legendary Andrei Tarkovsky (on Ivan's Childhood and Andre Rublev) in the early 1960s before launching his own directorial career.  He even tried his hand at English language films in the 1980s making Duet for One with Julie Andrews and the underappreciated Shy People with Barbara Hershey. His first Russian submission House of Fools in 2002 was unsuccessul. His second submission, the hugely lauded Paradise  in 2016, got close to the nomination, securing a finalist spot for itself. Will the third time be the charm? The official synopsis goes like so...

When the communist government raises food prices in 1962, the rebellious workers from the small industrial town of Novocherkassk go on strike. The massacre which then ensues is seen through the eyes of a devout party activist.

Hot on the heels of that news NEON has announced that they're grabbed US distribution though no release date has been announced. Let's look at Russia's history with Oscar after the jump...

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"Asia" Wins the Ophir. Let's Talk Israel and Oscar...

by Nathaniel R

Alena Yiv and Shira Haas as mother and daughter in ASIA

The Ophir Awards were held today in Israel with Asia emerging as the winner so it will now represent Israel at the Oscars. Based on buzz we've heard on this mother/daughter drama, which caused a stir at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year we've added it to the actual Oscar predictions and our letterboxd list tracking the contenders. Asia is a mother/daughter drama starring Alena Yiv as the mother and the brilliant Shira Haas (Unorthodox) as the daughter (they both won Ophir Awards for this) so we will see it the first chance we get. You can see a full list of the nominees and winners at this freshly updated post.

But let's talk about Israel at the Oscars. They hold the distinction of being (by far) the most nominated country that's never won. They used to be in a tight race for that frustrating honor but in the past seven years Poland won with Ida and then Mexico with Roma so now the title is theirs alone. Their nearest rival is a distant one (Belgium has 7 nominations). More on Israeli classics and Oscar stats after the jump...

ISRAEL'S OSCAR STATS
Submitting since 1964
52 Total Submissions 
10 Nominations (and 1 Additional Finalist)
0 Wins 

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EFA Nominees: Denmark's "Another Round" Leads the Pack

by Nathaniel R

Apologies that in this week where we've been doing such a fine job covering international cinema news what will all the Oscar submission daily stuff, that we missed the EFA nominations. "OOPS-HOWD-THAT- HAPPEN?" in all caps. The nominees and commentary are after the jump. If we've written about the film there are links...

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"Hope" and Norway's Oscar History

by Nathaniel R

The Norwegian Film Institute has selected Maria Sødahl's cancer drama Hope to represent them at the Oscars. The film stars Bræn Hovig and the ever-ubiquitous Stellan Skarsgård (who works as often in Scandinavia as he does in Hollywood, which is to say, a lot) as the couple thrown by a terrible diagnosis. Hope was selected over two other finalists which were: Disco by Jorunn Myklebust Syversen about a young girl mixed up with a Christian cult (which we reviewed at TIFF last fall), and Margreth Olin's documentary The Self Portrait about an acclaimed photographer struggling with anorexia. (Olin was submitted 11 years ago for her second narrative feature Angel though she's primarily a documentarian.)

1987 Norwegian nominee "Pathfinder"Norway has been perpetually overshadowed by Sweden and Denmark in terms of the cinema. They have a smaller film industry than their Scandinavian neighbors but the other problem is a noticeable lack of internationally-adored auteurs. We hoped that the rise of Joachim Trier would change that but, alas, the Oscars aren't helping in that regard as he's been submitted twice from his three Norwegian language films and the Academy passed both times.

Oscar stats and great Norwegian films after the jump...

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International Contenders Update

Since the last round up 6 more countries have announced Oscar submissions bringing the total of competing films to 43.

 

• BELGIUM - Working Girls  A drama about three women from France crossing the border daily to Belgium for sex work
• INDONESIA - Impetigore (previously discussed) Usually there's a random horror movie somewhere in the submission list but this year we have not one but two Asian horror movies (the other is Roh/Soul from Malaysia). The only horror movie we can think of to be successfully nominated in this category was a very long time ago with Japan's Kwaidan (1964). 
• IRAN - Sun Children (previously discussed) 
• KENYA - The Letter This is the first time Kenya has submitted a documentary (the nomination for Honeyland last year seems to have embolded various countries to send docs as it looks like there will be more of them than usual this year)
• LESOTHO -This is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection First submission from this country! It's one of only three independent states on earth that are entirely surrounded by another single country (in this case South Africa) -- they call them "enclaved countries", so it's the first submission from any enclaved country actually (the others are San Marino and Vatican City). The film is about an 80 year old woman who fights the construction of a reservoir in her village
• TURKEY - Miracle in Cel No 7  This is a loose remake of a South Korean film of the same name about a mentally disabled man who is wrongly imprisoned. The original is just 7 years old and it's already been remade by Turkey, The Philippines, and Indonesia.

More details on the Oscar charts and also a visual overview of the whole field at Letterboxd