Monday, October 19, 2020 at 7:00PM Germany will reportedly decide between these ten films for their Oscar submission this year which they'll announce near the end of this month. If you've seen any of these pictures, do share your opinion!
Monday, October 19, 2020 at 11:00AM Coverage from the 56th annual Chicago Film Festival running October 14 - 25.
by Nick Taylor
It takes a while for Charlatan, the newest film by Agnieszka Holland and the Czech Republic’s Oscar submission for Best International Feature this year, to get its feet under itself. The semi-fictionalized story of renowned Czech herbalist and healer Jan Mikolášek (played by Ivan Trojan for most of the film and by Josef Trojan, his son, as a young man), Charlatan opens with the death of president Antonín Zápotocký in 1957. With his biggest political ally and former patient gone, Mikolášek is warned to flee the Czech Republic before he's arrested by the Communist party. He refuses, either because he’s too bullishly stubborn or too self-flagellating, and is soon arraigned with his assistant František Palko (Juraj Loj) on death penalty-level charges that his lawyer proves are a sham with little investigation. The party doesn’t if the case is strong, or even real, as long as he’s executed.
The film jumps between this scenario and following Mikolášek’s beginnings as a soldier in World War I, his training with a local herbalist named Mülbacherová (Jaroslava Pokorná), and the formation of his practice with František. Charlatan delineating these timelines with a color tint heavy enough to satisfy anyone who found the dual threads in Little Women difficult to track...
Wednesday, October 14, 2020 at 7:00PM by Nathaniel R
We're up to 14 announced submissions for this year's Best International Feature Oscar so those submission charts are updated with the following films added
We've only had the pleasure of seeing one of these five newly announced titles so far, Wet Season (which was a Golden Horse nominee last year). I liked it at TIFF in 2019 though I thought it erred on the side of being too much of a "slow burn" if you know what I mean. But a year later I'll admit that I think of it surprisingly frequently so even though I was a thumbs up, I underestimated it! It's an emotionally complicated story of an unhappy teacher who becomes way too involved with the life of her lonely student (they're pictured above).
But back to the submissions, of the 14 films we know about so far 6 are from female directors! How about that? One of those female directors is a regular, in point of fact...
Monday, October 12, 2020 at 6:00PM 
Mexico's own Oscar-like film awards have been handed out with I'm No Longer Here prevailing with 10 trophies. That's quite a haul. The drama is about a member of a dancing street gang (played by Juan Daniel Garcia Treviño, pictured left) who is forced to immigrate to the US to escape a local cartel. The cast was non-actors, hired for their dancing ability and authenticity. The film is currently streaming on Netflix if you're curious.
ARIEL AWARD NOMINEES & WINNERS
Picture
We believe all of these* are eligible to be Mexico's submission this year as none were on their finalist list last year for consideration (though some of the other films nominated in craft categories were). This probably means I'm No Longer Here is the likely submission but you never know. Since it does take place partially in the US it has some English in it (movies run into trouble with this particular category if the English dialogue is dominant or roughly equal to the non-English dialogue). * Clarification: All except This is Not Berlin which would not be eligible as it did have a US theatrical run in 2019.
The nominees and winners are after the jump. If we've previously written about the film there's a link...
Friday, October 9, 2020 at 11:20AM by Nathaniel R
Beginning
We have three more official submissions for Best International Feature Film at the forthcoming Oscars, bringing the number up to nine, and one of them is streaming on Netflix for your pleasure or cathartic misery as the case may be...
