International Oscar Race Pt 3: More than you need to know about the directors!

by Nathaniel R

In past years we've broken the International Feature Oscar category down into lots of different articles but we should probably calm down. So herewith the lists we usually provide in several articles in a more condensed all-in-one format! 93 films are competing for the nomination in this category. Given the field, consider this a year for fresh voices. Only eight countries (Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Iran, Italy, Mongolia, North Macedonia, Russia) chose directors who have previously helmed Oscar-nominated or finalist films. Since we've already covered the previously Oscar-honored directors, let's look at the others.

We'll divvy it up into three categories: debuts, female directors, and the rest of the field. 

THE DEBUT DIRECTORS LIST

Amjad Abu Alala (You Will Die at 20 for Sudan)
Sudan's first-ever Oscar submission comes from a first-time director. He previously worked as a producer. 

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Review: The Twentieth Century

By: Patrick Gratton

Canadian history remembers William Lyon Mackenzie King as one of our most defining statesmen. King was the longest running Prime Minister to hold office in Ottawa, and a central ally to both Winston Churchill and FDR, in mobilizing Canada in World War II. Historians commend Mackenzie King as a central rallying cry for a divided country, whose skill set helped him reach across the aisle, mending multiple differences and helping grow Canada’s Independence even as it remained a British colony.

In his feature film debut The Twentieth Century, Winnipeg-born Matthew Rankin subverts this story. Set in 1899 and told in ten chapters, the film omits all of the soon-to-be Prime Minister’s triumphs, focusing instead on Mackenzie King’s (Dan Bierne) candidacy to be the country’s leader. Rankins shows a steady hand, confidently orchestrating a film that’s equal parts  German expressionism, 1920s melodrama and absurdist satire. The film unapologetically ransacks the mythos of the Canadian identity.

The future prime minister is depicted as a precious man-child, with an overbearing mother (Louis Negin, in drag)...

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NYFF: Dea Kulumbegashvili's "Beginning"

by Jason Adams

If you throw a ball, or even better a stick of dynamite, straight up into the air there is a moment of pause, of tranquility, at its peak, before it comes tumbling down. The apogee, as its known, is a fascinating word to me, close as it is to apology -- in my mind I always picture the shrug of the cartoon Coyote as he begins his plummet. Apogee, but whoops here I come. Georgian filmmaker Dea Kulumbegashvili's Beginning, as stunning a debut film as any I've seen, lingers in the feeling of that pause -- the world feels suspended, we're light of breath and danger is nigh, but man the view is something.

The film begins and we meet Yana (Ia Sukhitashvili, staggeringly good) and her husband David (Rati Oneli) as they greet parishioners inside their sparse, fresh-smelling new Jehovah's Witness church, and immediately we notice two things. First that the film was filmed in the squarish frame ratio that's become shorthand for art-minded movie-makers looking to quick express claustrophobia -- think First Reformed or The Lighthouse; right away we know that these are people who are stifled by their surroundings...

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Clift @100: Monty arrives in "The Search"

by Eric Blume

We’re celebrating actor Montgomery Clift’s centennial here at TFE with a staff-wide observance of every single one of his films.  I’m the lucky bastard who gets to launch this exciting series with his first released film, 1948’s The Search.  

Director Fred Zinnemann crafted a film that holds up surprisingly well at age 72.  Sure, you have to muddle through some stilted expository voice-over and some now-dated narrative conventions, but this film’s emotional power still taps primal feelings and has an incredible payoff.  It’s a Hollywood film through and through, but Zinnemann shows extraordinary restraint and intelligence, keeping his focus on his young actor, and the American cheerleading to a minimum...

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Lana Turner. Because movie stars need love, too.

We've been celebrating 1957 these past few weeks. Please welcome our new contributor Baby Clyde...

Lana turner in "Peyton Place" and the closest she came to Oscar - presenting Red Buttons with his that same year

After nearly two decades as a topflight Hollywood star Lana Turner finally grabbed Oscar’s attention for her performance as the uptight mother Constance Mackenzie in the smash hit 1957 soap opera Peyton Place. It was to be their only serious encounter. Nobody argues that Lana was a great actress but by god was she a great Movie Star. Maybe the greatest of all in my estimation. There is no one in film history who ticks so many boxes or encapsulates so many Hollywood tropes and clichés. 

Young Judy Turner went to Hollywood High School before literally being discovered at a soda counter by the editor of the Hollywood Reporter at age 16 (See how many times I’ve used the word ‘Hollywood’ already).  Now named ‘Lana’ she made one of the most iconic debuts in movie history as the ill-fated murder victim in They Won’t Forget (1937) and was dubbed "The Sweater Girl" for the way her ample charms filled out said item of clothing...

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