Two more Oscar submissions announced

The foreign Oscar submissions keep on coming. Egypt will be submitting Sheikh Jackson, a potential crowd pleaser about an Islamic cleric undergoing an identity crisis when he flashes back to his Michael Jackson obsessed youth when Michael dies. Egypt has yet to be Oscar-nominated but who knows.

A more likely nominee on paper, given the history, is Poland's Spoor (originally called Pokot) a murder mystery directed by Agnieska Holland. The film about an animal rights activist that becomes involved in a string of mysterious crimes has been getting interestingly mixed reviews. Holland first came to international fame (and Oscar love) with her big arthouse hit and WW II drama Europa Europa (1990) and was recently in the hunt again with the foreign film nominee In Darkness (2011). You could argue that she's Oscar's second favorite Polish director (of those who kept making movies in Poland, that is) after the late legendary Andrzej Wajda who was up for the foreign film Oscar four times and eventually received an Honorary.

The charts are here

'The Shape of Water' wins Venice

 by Murtada

On Saturday night President Annette Bening and her jury, announced their choices at the Venice Film Festival. Guillermo Del Toro’s romantic fantasy The Shape of Water rode its wave of ecstatic reviews all the way to winning the biggest prize, The Golden Lion. More and a complete list of winners after the jump...

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Official Foreign Film Submissions Thus Far

All the foreign submission charts have been updated to reflect the speedy announcements of new titles. We're now up to 84 (last year's tally was an all time record of 85). Somehow I neglected to include Ireland on the submission charts. They've selected an "audacious" biopic about the singer Joe Heany called Song of Granite. The film uses both documentary footage and narrative sequences. It's in black and white and looks gorgeous in still photos

Submissions we've reviewed thus far here at TFE...

• Argentina's Zama
• Austria's Happy End
• Belgium's The Racer and the Jailbird
• Estonia's November
• Hungary's On Body and Soul
• Norway's Thelma

Submissions we've seen but haven't yet reviewed...

• Czech Republic's Ice Mother
• Egypt's Sheikh Jackson
• Finland's Tom of Finland
• France's 120 Beats per Minute
• Polan's Spoor

Submissions we're scheduled to see soon...

• Sweden's The Square
• Switzerland's The Divine Order

The rest of the list (thus far). We'll look out for opportunities to see them...

• Afghanistan A Letter to the President
• Albania's Daybreak
• Algeria's Road to Instanbul
• Armenia's Yeva
• Azerbaijan's Pomegranate Orchard
• Bangladesh's Khacha
• Bolivia's Dark Skull
• Bosnia & Herzegovina's Men Don't Cry
• Brazil's Bingo: King of the Mountain
• Bulgaria's Glory
• Cambodia's First They Killed My Father
• Canada's Hochelaga, Land of Souls
• Chile's A Fantastic Woman
• Colombia's Guilty Men
• Croatia's Quit Staring at My Plate
• Denmark's You Disappear
• Dominican Republic's Woodpeckers
• Ecuador's Alba
• Georgia's Scary Mother
• Germany's In the Fade
• Greece's Amerika Square
• Hong Kong's Mad World
• Iceland's Under the Tree
• India's Newton
• Indonesia's The Leftovers
• Iran's Breath
• Iraq's The Dark Wind
• Ireland's Song of Granite
• Israel's Foxtrot
• Italy's A Ciambra
• Japan's Her Love Boils Bathwater
• Kazakhstan's Road to Mother
• Kenya's Kati Kati
• Kosovo's Unwanted
• Kyrgyzstan's Centaur
• Laos's Dearest Sister
• Latvia's Chronicles of Melanie
• Lebanon's The Insult
• Lithuania's Frost
• Luxembourg's Barrage
• Mexico's Tempestad
• Morocco's Razzia
• Mozambique's The Train of Salt and Sugar
• Nepal's White Sun
• Netherland's Layla M
• New Zealand's One Thousand Ropes
• Pakistan's Saawan
• Palestine's Wajib
• Panama's Beyond Brotherhood
• Paraguay's Los Buscadores
• Peru's Rosa Chumber
• Philippines's Birdshot
• Portugal's Saint George
• Romania's The Fixer
• Russia's Loveless
• Serbia's Requiem for Mrs J
• Singapore's Pop Aye
• Slovakia's The Line
• Slovenia's The Miner
• South Africa's The Wound
• South Korea's A Taxi Driver
• Spain's Summer 1993
• Taiwan's Small Talk
• Thailand's By the Time It Gets Dark
• Tunisia's The Last of Us
• Turkey's Ayla: The Daughter of War
• Ukraine's Black Level
• United Kingdom's My Pure Land
• Uruguay's Another Story of the World
• Venezuela's El Inca
• Vietnam's Father and Son

Current predictions

Top 5 Films Without Repeating a Language or Country

by Sebastian Nebel

Name your Top 5 films without repeating a language or country of origin.

That was the challenge I posed on Twitter last month. It's tricky enough to limit your favorites to a specific number, and I was interested in seeing what kind of responses this added degree of difficulty would garner.

Turns out Twitter loves making lists! I got a ton of replies – way too many to collect all of them here, unfortunately. But I've rounded up a handful of them after the jump including lists by The Film Experience contributors, film critics and film makers...

edgarwright @edgarwright

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo)
2001: A Space Odyssey
Police Story (警察故事)
Delicatessen
Santa Sangre (Holy Blood)

— August 28, 2017

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YNMS: A Fantastic Woman

by Ilich Mejía

Since screening at Berlinale earlier this year, and now at TIFF and Telluride, A Fantastic Woman (Una Mujer Fantástica in Spanish) has been generating very positive talk. It is Sebastián Lelio's follow up to 2013's wonderful and under-appreciated Gloria. The film stars trans actress Daniela Vega as a waitress mourning her lover in what looks like will be another queer classic from this year. 

Let that stunner of a trailer sink in after the jump and let's discuss the Yes No and Maybe So of it all... 

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