Best International Film: Brazil's "Private Desert", Iceland's "Lamb" and more...

Since I last piped up on the Best International Feature Film race at the upcoming Oscars, Italy released their finalist lists, and the following five countries have also picked their ponies:

BRAZIL
They're sending Aly Muritiba's Private Desert about a suspended policeman who is looking to meet his internet love. She's vanished but he finds a man who offers to connect the would-be lovers. It premiered at Venice...

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The Italian Oscar race: 18 contenders for the submission, 1 probable winner

by Elisa Giudici

THE HAND OF GOD

The Italian longlist for the 2021 Oscar submission is very long and much better than usual, quality-wise. Although if the Italian Cinema Academy appointed by ANICA really wants to give Italy a chance to make the finals,the choice is obvious: Paolo Sorrentino's The Hand of God.

Unfortunately, in the last decade, the Italian film commission's rulings on this matter have not proved to be that smart. I mean, how can you send Marco Bellocchio's The Traitor (as beautiful and important as it was domestically) when The New York Times states that Pietro Marcello's Martin Eden is the best movie of 2020? Our only solace was that that was the year of Parasite, so there was no room for a real contender to Bong Joon-ho's victory in Best Internatural Feature Film...

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International Feature: Indonesia, Malawi, Malta, and Slovakia submit

More entries announced!

INDONESIA
Indonesia will send Kamila Andini's Yuni a drama about a teenage girl who rejects a marriage proposal. But the proposals keep coming and culturally she's supposed to accept...

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International Feature: "Titane" and other new Oscar submissions

by Nathaniel R

If you've missed Oscar submission announcements we've covered all of them from Croatia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Israel, Greece, Hungary, The Netherlands, Somalia, South Korea, Ecuador, Serbia, Switzerland, though Albania, Ireland, Kyrgzstan, Slovenia, Ukraine, Armenia, Canada, Peru, and on to Spain. We've reviewed nine other entries including films from Cambodia (White Building), Colombia (Memoria), Finland (Compartment No 6), Germany (I'm Your Man), Japan (Drive My Car), Morocco (Casablanca Beats), Poland (Leave No Traces), and Taiwan (The Falls). Now we have five more announcements to "consider" the highest profile new contender being France's Titane, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes. But let's take the five new options alphabetically by country after the jump...

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Beauty Break: Franz Rogowski (Great Freedom)

by Nathaniel R

Franz Rogowski at Cannes for "The Great Freedom" this summer

This morning we learned that Sebastian Meise's Great Freedom, a German language post war drama about a homosexual in prison will be Austria's submission for the Oscars this year (chart updates). The film stars Franz Rogowski who we've loved looking at ever since we first saw him in the amazing continuous shot movie Victoria (2015) and whose career picked up steam after the international acclaim for Transit (2018). 2021 has been a busy year for the German star. The romantic fantasy Undine (2020) was released in June in the US and directly afterwards he spent the next few months at film festivals promoting three new projects: Great Freedom at Cannes in July, Luzifer at Locarno in August, and the Italian film Freaks Out at Venice in early September. 

Photos, some shot by the man himself (who has a fun Instagram account), some from his movies, and some lifted from MNPP (Jason is also a huge fan) are after the jump...

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