Halfway done with the Best International Film list?

by Nathaniel R

Behind the scenes I've been updating the Best International Film submission charts daily. At this writing we have 43 titles, which means we're about halfway done. We still haven't heard which title will represent heavy-hitters like Denmark, France, Italy, Spain, or last year's winner Brazil (though we do have finalists lists for a few of those mainstays of the category). We also impatiently await the decisions from three countries (China, Hong Kong, India) with major cinema industry that voters strangely resist on the regular (sigh). So check out the three charts (A-G / H-N / P-Y) and the current finalist list predictions.  Yes, the other Oscar charts will get an update very soon. We'll start when TIFF announces their People's Choice prize.

Today i wanted to highlight four of the newer submissions that I'm excited to see if I ever get the opportunity...

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TIFF 50: The cranes are flying in "The Tale of Silyan"

by Cláudio Alves

According to Macedonian legend, there was once a boy called Silyan who wished to go far away, leave his village behind, and spread his wings into the world beyond. But when he told his father, the patriarch flew into a rage, cursing the name of the child and his dreams along with it. Answering these paternal furies, the heavens opened above, releasing a mighty force that struck the boy. He didn't die, though. Instead, as the father had decreed, Sylian turned into a stork who could now do as he wanted and leave everything that he knew. But this freedom was not to be an idyll. It was a cursed existence, lonely and unmoored, caught in the space between worlds and belonging to nowhere. 

Tamara Kotevska uses this folktale as the jumping start from which her latest exercise soars into the cinematic heavens above. The Tale of Silyan, which was just announced as North Macedonia’s submission for the 98^th Academy Awards, marks the director's second feature since she, along with Ljubomir Stefanov, helmed the Oscar-nominated Honeyland...

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Oscar Volleys: Best Documentary shows why awards matter

The Oscar Volleys are back for some post-nomination talks. Cláudio Alves and Ben Miller discuss Best Documentary Feature Film...

NO OTHER LAND | © Antipode Films

CLÁUDIO: War, ethnic cleansing, sexual assault, anti-colonial fight, and more ethnic cleansing - this year's Best Documentary Feature Oscar race has it all. As often happens, the populist fare and celebrity-focused docs got a lot of precursor attention but failed to convince the Academy's more politically-minded Academy branch. No Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story or Jim Henson: Idea Man here. That leaves us with no fluff or even the potential for levity, no feel-good conclusion or catharsis of any sort. And, to be honest, these pictures and the race in general are better for it. But it does make it hard to discuss, which is why I'm elated that I got such a great conversation partner. If anyone can make this convo enjoyable, if not outright fun, it's you, Ben.

BEN: Nothing brings me more joy to talk about than five films that are big fat bummers.  I do wish we had something with a little more light or levity, but that is the byproduct of documentaries in general.  They depict real life, and our real lives are bummers right now…

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Sundance Review: “Heightened Scrutiny” is an All-Too Timely Doc about the Fight for Transgender Rights

by Abe Friedtanzer

It’s a troubling time to be transgender in America, to say the least. Within just days of his return to the White House, Donald Trump has already taken massive steps to roll back protections against transgender people and to limit recognition of their existence in every way possible. The documentary Heightened Scrutiny carries an important message of perseverance and hope, following one lawyer arguing an important case about gender-affirming care in the delicate period between Trump’s election and inauguration while the Department of Justice is still on his side...

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Sundance Review: “Middletown” Celebrates Student Journalism

by Abe Friedtanzer

Married filmmakers Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine are no strangers to the Sundance Film Festival, premiering both Boys State and Girls State in Park City. They also made the documentary The Mission, about missionary John Allen Chau, who is the subject of a narrative film, Last Days, screening this year at Sundance. Moss and McBaine return to a field they know well - education - with a look back at a group of trailblazing student journalists and environmental advocates prepared to take on government systems and the mafia before they even graduated high school...

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