Interview: Aly Muritiba on Brazil's queer Oscar submission "Private Desert"

by Nathaniel R

Sometimes the long lead up to a movie's release can alter a story. In the case of Aly Muritiba's Private Desert, most people who come to it will already be aware of its central premise though the movie treats that as a "reveal". Happily the film works either way. Crossing the border can also change how a movie feels. The initial protagonist, Daniel (Antonio Saboia) is viewed sympathetically but his offscreen history (police brutality) is likely to spark different reactions from country to country, depending on societal views on policing and masculinity.  In the minimalist but never simple story, a lonely cop spontaneously drives several hours to finally meet the woman he's been romancing online. She abruptly ghosts him after an implicit request for reciprocal nudes and we glean, quite a long time before he does, that he's fallen for a queer person. 

We had the pleasure of talking to the director Aly Muritiba about the film, the careful casting of his second lead, and Brazil's contentious history of Oscar selections...

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Best International Film: Chile, Netherlands, Spain

by Cláudio Alves

I'm pleased to bring you the annual grouped reviews of the less high profile submissions for Best International Film Oscar. Many major contenders have already been reviewed (check the end of this article for links), but others remain unexamined. With 93 titles to consider, that's bound to happen. So as we wait for December 21st, when the Academy announces its 15-wide shortlist for this particular race, let's take a look at some of those submissions, starting with three previous champions from the category's history.

Chile won once before, while the Netherlands has three Oscars, and Spain counts four previous victories. This year, they submitted a portrait of colonialism, a drama about war's hell, and a dark comedy starring an Oscar-winning international star… 

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"Quo Vadis, Aida?" and "Flee" win big at the European Film Awards

by Nathaniel R

The years bleed together in the world of movie awards. Quo Vadis Aida?, the Bosnian drama, premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2020 before receiving an Oscar nomination for Best International Feature Film that same season. It lost the Oscar to 2020's European Film Awards champ, Denmark's Another Round. Now, a full movie awards season later, it has succeeded its once-vanquisher to also take the top prize at the European Film Awards. What's more two British Oscar winners last year, Promising Young Woman and The Father also picked up key prizes. The only Oscar hopeful this season that arguably got a boost from the European Awards was the animated documentary Flee, which triumphed in both of its categories, Animated Feature & Documentary Feature, a double-whammy it surely hopes to achieve again at the Oscars. You can watch the ceremony here if you're so inclined.

This has no bearing on the Oscars of course, since none of those films are eligible but it is a mild eyebrower raiser that France's Titane, Finland's Compartment No 6, Italy's The Hand of God, and Norway's Worst Person in the World, all of which are award-winning presumed threats to Oscar nominations this season, could beat the year-old Bosnian film in any of their categories. Complete list of winners after the jump...

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Directors Guild of The Philippines speaks out on their absence in the Oscar race.

Academy members who volunteer for the nominating committees on Best International Feature Film are currently choosing their favourites from the available 93 films. Voting on this first round closes on the 15th but one country that won't be honored this season, no matter how voting goes, is The Philippines. They didn't submit. That's unusual for them. 

The absence of The Philippines from Oscar voting has prompted a hand-wringing statement from the Directors Guild of the Philippines which reads as follows...

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Which Oscar contenders are streaming *right now*

Need something to watch this weekend at home? There are so many options. And consider this...

The Academy is voting right now (through December 15th) on the nine categories that have "finalist" lists before the actual nomination round. That's all three SHORTS categories, plus MAKEUP, VISUAL EFFECTS, SCORE, SONG, DOCUMENTARY, and INTERNATIONAL FEATURE. So dozens to hundreds of films will be eliminated on December 21st when those finalists lists are announced. But here are some key films that could theoretically make the finals in one or more of those categories that are free to stream right now -- free if you have that subscription of course. So these are some options if you're looking to catch up with buzzy or not-buzzy-but-of-interest possibilities...

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