Oscar's Foreign Race Pt 5 - Beauty Break, International Male

Chino Darín, son of Argentina's most prominent movie star Richardo Darín, stars in two of the Foreign Film Contenders this yearby Nathaniel R

We've been digging into the 87 films that are up for the Academy Award in Foreign Language Film. So far we've watched the trailers, talked abotu the female directors, and introduced the first time filmmakers. 

Today something more fun but of vital importance: hot men. Please enjoy this beauty break featuring snacks from all over the world. We scoured the entries for the eye candy (it was painstaking research!) and here's what we found. If we missed someone from your country, we apologize because we haven't seen all the film so someone just gorgeous could have easily slipped through the cracks.

SO. Which of these dozen men do you already love and which do you want to love just by looking at them? They're presented in random order after the jump...

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NYFF: Pawel Pawlikowski's Cold War

Jason Adams reporting from the New York Film Festival

Like Phantom Thread last year Pawel Pawlikowski's magnificently romantic and visually bewitching new film Cold War deals in the secret languages and strange understandings between true lovers - that no matter how hard it is on your soul and constitution that person sitting across the table is the one made for you and vice versa, and you might be the end of each other but you'll be each other's beginnings too...

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Oscar's Foreign Race Pt 4 - Debuting Filmmakers

Previously: All 87 foreign language film contenders, all the trailers we could find (we're missing just two) along with screening information, and the 20 female directors submitted.  Okay, part four now...

DEBUT DIRECTORS

First time's the charm. 26 of the 87 films Oscar-submitted by their home country are for directors making their debut. That's an extraordinary honor if you stop to think about it! Would you like to meet them? That's rhetorical as I'll hope you'll click ahead to do so...

Asim Abbasi is a Pakistani director making his feature debut with Cake. He previously made short films.  You can follow him on Twitter. 

More newbies after the jump...

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Oscar's Foreign Race Pt 3 - Female Directors

With the 87 wide official list of foreign Oscar submissions released to consider, we thought we'd dig a little deeper this week into various aspects of the race. We've already shared all the trailers so let's break down how the directors shake out with the rich and promising topic of women behind the camera.

FEMALE DIRECTORS
Contrary to popular internet belief, very generally speaking of course, female directors overseas are not as rare or as systemically unsupported as they have historically been in the US. There are usually at least a handful of female-helmed films in the long official submission list. This year we have the second most we've ever had in the run up to the nominations. Of the 87 movies in contention, 20 were directed or co-directed by women. 

Rungano Nyoni was born in Zambia but emigrated to the UK when she was a little girl. Her debut feature is the widely acclaimed I Am Not a Witch (2018) which won the BAFTA last season for Outstanding Debut and is now playing in selected cities in the US.  She was previously nominated at the BAFTAs for a short film Mwansa the Great (2011). She is the second female filmmaker chosen by the UK for the Oscars, the first being Havana Marking for Afghan Star (2009) but that number isn't as dire as it sounds. The UK has only submitted 16 films in the history of the Oscars since most of the films produced there are in English...

Nadine Labaki is Lebanon's most internationally prominent director breaking through 11 years ago with the hit Caramel (2007). Her latest festival sensation Capernaum (2018) won a special Jury prize at Cannes and is opening in several international markets over the next few months including the US on December 14th.

18 more women after the jump...

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Oscar's Foreign Race Pt 1 - Trailers A-K / Where to See The Movies.

by Nathaniel R

Today with the release of the official contenders list for Best Foreign Language Film we will be updating our foreign film charts to reflect the final list. While we're doing that please enjoy a full collection of trailers and information about where / when you can see the movies if you really want to dive in. You'll probably have to watch these trailers piecemeal because 2 minutes x 87 adds up to one long-ass movie! Ready? Deep breath. Here we go with the first half from Afghanistan through Kosovo. (Previously announced submissions from Cuba and Kyrgyzstan are conspiciously missing from the final list -- were they disqualified?)

Here are the first 44 films. Part two coming soon...  

AFGHANISTAN Rona Azim's Mother
Where to see: Unknown 

ALGERIA Until the End of Time
Where to see: Unknown

ARGENTINA The Angel
Where to See: Opens in US movie theaters on November 9th

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