New Oscar Charts: Can Norway finally win "Best International Feature Film"?

by Nathaniel R

possible submissions from Japan & Norway

Counterintuitively, we begin this year's April Foolish Predictions (two months late --- woot!) with a category for which we currently have no proof of eligibility for. No country that competes in Oscar's annual Best International Feature Film category has (yet) announced their submission. But we do know, from past experiences, that many of the submissions each year will have premiered at film festivals ranging from last fall in 2024 through the fall of 2025. So we looked at recent editions of Sundance, Berlinale, and Cannes for clues. This is great fun to do as anything is possible this early; you don't even need a US distributor to compete (though of course it doesn't hurt)...

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New Oscar Trivia / Stats for 2025

by Nathaniel R

FLOW is first in two different ways!

UPDATED WITH MORE STATS (03/06/25 1:30 PM EST)

With another year ending we can now look at new stats and trivia from the year that was and acknowledge records that weren't broken, too, but are of note. If you have anything to add to the list share it in the comments, please. Herewith some things to ponder in regards to Oscar trivia...

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Oscar Volleys: Best International Film aka “Emilia Pérez” vs. the World

The Oscar Volleys are back for some post-nomination talks. Today, Eric Blume and Nathaniel Rogers discuss Best International Film...

EMILIA PÉREZ | © Netflix

ERIC:  Nathaniel, what fun to have you all to myself to discuss the nominees for Best International Film (which I sometimes still call Best Foreign Film, because that's been in my brain too long).  I think we have five pretty terrific nominees this year.  Before we get into their Oscar-ability, what is your personal take across the five films?  I wouldn't be mad at a ranking!

NATHANIEL:  I share the same nomenclature waffling but we both were Oscar watching since the 1980s so who can blame us?...

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Best International Film: Canada's "Universal Language"

by Cláudio Alves

In the last hours of voting for the Oscar nominations, let's celebrate one of the best films up for Academy consideration. It's none other than the Canadian submission for Best International Film, Matthew Rankin's sophomore feature – Universal Language. If watching the director's debut, The Twentieth Century, felt like witnessing the second coming of fellow Winnipegger Guy Maddin, seeing the wonder of his latest work is akin to re-encountering Jacques Tati in the 21st century. Or perchance a Manitoban Abbas Kiarostami. Rather than evading such comparisons, Rankin runs straight at them, making his latest project into a dialogue between filmic languages and other idioms along the way, reaching for the fantastical, so specific as to be universal…

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Best International Film: UK & Ireland

by Cláudio Alves

This past Sunday, there was a lot to entertain awards obsessives. Among the various votes and ceremonies, one can find the British Independent Film Awards, where two of this year's Best International Film Oscar submissions took home some honors. Well, a lot of them in Kneecap's case. The Irish music biopic is the most nominated film in BIFA history, and its final tally of wins is just as impressive – seven victories total. Then, there is Santosh, the UK's Hindi-language submission, which took home two awards, for Breakthrough Producer and Best Screenplay. Will the Academy be similarly in love with these two projects, both works of openly political cinema? Let's consider…

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