Oscar Volley: Best International Film is a pundit's nightmare

With less than a week until nominations, Cláudio Alves and Elisa Giudici discuss Best International Feature…

Italy's THE HAND OF GOD

Cláudio Alves: Before we delve into the finalists for Oscar's Best International Feature Film competition, I must comment on the fact that we each come from a record-holding country in this category's history, albeit opposite ends of the success spectrum. As far as victories, Italy (your home) is the all-time champion, having won this prize 14 times. On the other hand, Portugal (mine) is still waiting for its first nomination, being the unnominated country with the most submissions. In fact, we've never even gotten as far as the shortlist stage (cries inconsolably)!

Anyway, since we're on the topic of our countries, I'm interested in knowing whether you think it's safe to predict Paolo Sorrentino's return to the Academy's favour with The Hand of God. I can't say I'm entirely convinced about the picture's merits...

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International Oscar Finals: Meet the Directors, Consider the Stats

by Nathaniel R

In some ways the competition for "Best International Feature Film" is the longest of Oscar races. It begins as early as the fall festivals in the previous year when titles that have not yet debuted in their home countries begin showing their faces. By the time Cannes rolls around it's in full swing. The first contest for each buzzy film, within this awards context of course, is to be submitted by its home country. The second big hurdle is making the finalist list of 15 which is where we are right now. The announcement of the 15 Oscar finalists this year has the usual mix of high profile contenders and 'oh, didn't see that one coming!' surprises. A high profile only gets you so far in this race -- notice that French Cannes champ Titane and Romanian Berlinale champ  Bad Luck Banging... are both missing from the finals.

Let's meet the directors behind the 15 films vying for those 5 nomination slots...

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"Drive My Car" and "A Hero" lead Asia Pacific Screen Awards nominations

by Nathaniel R

This season's Japanese and Iranian Oscar submissions, Drive My Car and A Hero respectively, now lead the nominations for the 14th annual Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA). These awards consider 70 countries and areas that together represent billions of people and half of the world's film production. Their nominations are heavy with titles that debut at Cannes this year and many of the titles are also Oscar submissions this season from their respective countries.  

The complete list of nominees is after the jump...

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International Oscar Contenders: "A Hero" and "Bad Luck Banging on Loony Porn" join the fray

by Nathaniel R

A HERO (2021) comes from Iran's Oscar-winning champ Asghar Farhadi

Next week we have scheduled Oscar submission announcements from Denmark (we suspect Flee), Italy (we suspect Hand of God), Norway (we suspect Worst Person in the World) and Portugal (we suspect... no, we have no idea!) and on the latter we'll be hearing from Cláudio, your favourite Portuguese critic. But  let's not get ahead of ourselves. There is a lot to discuss RIGHT NOW in the International Feature Film Oscar Race as we now have seven more titles announced plus another finalist list. Which brings us to 51 movies so we're aware of over 50% of the competitive set now. News from Algeria, Belgium, India, Iran, Latvia, Palestine, Romania, and Sweden is after the jump...

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Cannes Closing Ceremony *Live Blog*

by Nathaniel R

7:57 We begin with the awards already in progress. (It's always difficult to find a link that works here in the US. Hence the delay) The jury has arrived with their always amusing individual strut ins. The actors and actresses (Song Kang Ho, Tahar Rahim, Maggie Gyllenhaal, etc...) are always relaxed and practiced at this but the directors often look vaguely mortified that they have to display themselves -- have you ever tried walking while everyone is staring at you or you're aware a camera is on. It's disconcerting! Brazil's brilliant Kleber Mendonça Filho (Aquarius, Bacurau) is visibly uncomfortable but Spike Lee, a "star" director, in a suit of many colors, is an old pro at being in the spotlight. He addresses the crowd but since this is a French live feed you can't actually hear the English being spoken because the translators are always speaking over the English. We'll do our best to understand...

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