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Entries in foreign films (732)

Friday
Apr052019

April Foolish Predictions #3: Foreign Language Film

And now we move to (nearly) the silliest category to try to predict a year in advance, Best Foreign Film. Individual countries don't begin announcing which films they're submitting until the summer (and usually wait until the end-of-September deadline) so it's a bit like blindfolding yourself and pointing at a spinning globe. Nevertheless we just like to have predicted the five countries so we have stats later on about how well we did while blindfolded (it's a sickness, this punditry calling).

Previous famous nominees or winners of the Foreign Film Oscar

But mostly we threw up this early chart because we wanted to freshen up the foreign stats & Oscar history portion of that traditional annual page. Take a look won't you? Tell us if you learned anything new! We've been brainstorming behind the scenes at TFE at a way to deep dive into this category's history but we keep hitting the roadblock of films being unavailable (a far worse roadblock in this category than in others) due to... well, you know, the films being from other countries and distribution sometimes not extending much beyond their initial theatrical runs decades ago.

Sunday
Mar242019

Lupita & Jordan Strike Gold

The huge launch of the new buzzy horror flick Us proved three things. First, that horror is the most reliable genre outside of superheroes for automatically high grosses. Second, that Get Out was no one hit wonder and Jordan Peele's name in the director's chair is something to remain excited about. Third, that Lupita Nyong'o has zero trouble carrying a big picture as its leading lady (which we knew the second we fell for her in 12 Years a Slave but it took six long years for it to actually become fact.) Please no more voice or mo-cap roles, are you listening Hollywood/Lupita's management? We want HER onscreen, not just her voice onscreen with her glamour on red carpets. More after the jump...

Weekend Box Office (Estimates)
(March 22nd-24th) / 🔺 = new or expanded theater counts
W I D E
PLATFORM / LIMITED
1 🔺 Us  $70.2 on 3741 screens *NEW* SNEAK PEAK, REVIEW
1 🔺  Gloria Bell $1.8 (cum. $2.4) on 654 screens   REVIEWJULI LEADS
2 Captain Marvel $35 (cum. $321.4) on 4278 screens REVIEW
2  No Manches Frida 2 $1.7 (cum. $6.6) on 472 screens

Click to read more ...

Tuesday
Mar052019

Belated César Winners List

Eeek! During Oscar madness we totally forgot about the Gallic Oscars cross the Ocean. How rude of us! For completism's sake here is the list of winners in case you also missed the news.

BEST PICTURE

  • Memoir of War, dir: Emmanuel Finkiel
  • The Trouble With You, dir: Pierre Salvadori
  • The Sisters Brothers, dir: Jacques Audiard
  • Sink or Swim, dir: Gilles Lellouche 
  • Guy, dir: Alex  Lutz
  • Custody, dir: Xavier Legrand
  • In Safe Hands, dir: Jeanne Henry

Custody's four wins reminds us that it's still so weird that France didn't push it as their Oscar prospect last season. The other big winner was Shéhérazade about young lovers on the mean streets of Marseille which was not nominated for best picture but won each of its three nominations. Sink or Swim, the nomination leader and dadbod comedy, which opened too late to be France's Oscar submission last year, only took home one prize. Supporting Actor...

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Friday
Feb152019

Review: Birds of Passage

by Abe Fried-Tanzer

Modernity is rarely a welcome concept for those rooted in tradition. What many see as progress is often decried as the destruction of long-held values and an attempt to push out members of the old guard who still adhere to customs they do not believe to be outdated. Every community must adapt to technological progress in some way or remain isolated from the rest of the world, a strategy that can’t last forever.

In Colombia's Birds of Passage, which made the nine-wide finalist list for foreign film but missed the nomination, the setting is the 1960s and the disruptive influence is the drug trade. Rapayet (José Acosta) becomes engaged to Zaida (Natalia Reyes), and, according to the customs of their indigenous Wayúu community, must present her family with a substantial dowry. Motivated by pride more than anything, Rapayet sees a business opportunity to provide Americans from the Peace Corps with marijuana...

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Tuesday
Feb052019

Thoughts I Had... about the Oscar Luncheon Class Photo

Watching this video (embedded after the jump) is so worth your time. Why does anyone want the Oscars to be short? Even 48 minutes just to celebrate the nominees taking a photo is too short!

00:27 Why isn't Laura Dern president of the Academy. Save us, Laura! Things have gone so haywire and the rumor is you yourself put the kabosh on the "popular film Oscar" idea so we know you have common sense. 

01:15 "...A narrative that does not propagate myths but dispel them."  Hmmm, whatever/whoever/what political party / propaganda channel could she ever be talking about? Hee.

02:00 I imagine these decorative bells on her dress making beautiful tiny ringing noises, too faint for the mic, when she moves, like she herself is giving wings to many angels by the second. She's one of them...

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