Best International Film Reviews: Final Flurry before the Shortlist

by Cláudio Alves

The Oscar shortlists are almost upon us, culling the 90-plus Best International Film submissions to a measly 15-wide field. Unfortunately, that means we're running out of time to consider those unfortunate titles unlikely to catch AMPAS' eye, no matter how deserving they may be. This includes productions perchance a bit too low-profile and others whose style skews too far from the Academy's sweet spot. Sometimes it's a matter of formalistic austerity. Sometimes, unresolved bleakness or genre stylings do the troubling trick. So, from an Iranian movie set to an Alpine tragedy, going through multiple wartime tragedies and the domestic sorrows of an Irish girl, let's indulge in a final flurry of capsule-sized reviews…

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Interview: The Director of Israel's Oscar Submission ‘Cinema Sabaya’

By Abe Friedtanzer

 

The winner of Israel’s Oscars, the Ophir Awards, automatically goes on to become the country’s Oscar submission for Best International Feature. This year, that film is Cinema Sabaya, which has an encore screening at the Other Israel Film Festival in New York City this Sunday after showing at last year’s festival. It’s also the feature directorial debut of Orit Fouks Rotem, who was kind enough to speak with me about her approach to this engaging movie about making movies...

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Who will / should win the Ophirs?

A special guest report from Israel about the upcoming Israeli film awards - Editor

Top contenders for the Israeli Oscar

by Johnathan Tsuria

The 2022 Ophir awards will take place at September the 18th, and the film which wins the top prize will represent Israel at the Oscars. For most Israelis, that is the only point of interest about these awards, as they are plagued by countless decisions that prevent moviegoers here from caring. The major problem is that there is zero connection between the films released so far in cinemas and the films which end up competing for the awards. For example, from the 5 nominees for Best Picture, only one (Where is Anne Frank) was released before the nominations were announced. Another (Cinema Sabaya), was released after they were announced, and the presumed frontrunner (Karaoke) will be released only after the ceremony. The other two (Valeria Is Getting Married, 35 Downhill) have no release date scheduled for Israeli cinemas apart from presumably their qualifying showings. Last year's winner, Let it Be Morning, wasn't reelased for regular moviegoers until the spring of 2022. 

Generally, I have to say that the nominations were something of a disappointment. Great films like June Zero and All I Can Do were mostly shut out while something like Where Is Anne Frank snagged a best picture nomination surely because the voters think it may do well at the Oscars – It got one other nomination, for sound, and that’s it.  However, there are good films nominated so let’s try to predict who will win... 

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