Best International Film: Belgium, Kosovo, Russia

by Cláudio Alves

Our odyssey through the Best International Film submissions continues, this time focused on women behind the camera. As Juan Carlos' series Through Her Lens reminds us, there's a wealth of women directors every year whose work gets forgotten in lieu of their male counterparts. Of course, that's true in the Best Director Oscar race, but it also applies to every other category, including this one. From schoolyard bullying shot as psychological warfare to the physical aftermaths of an unspoken massacre, the submissions from Belgium, Kosovo, and Russia showcase the talent of female artists who explore many shades of brutality through a woman's point-of-view…

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Oscar's "Best International Feature Film" race begins

by Nathaniel R

The 94th Oscars are six months away but we now know seven of the contenders for the next Best International Feature Film race (so it's time to start updating/building the Oscar charts). In the past couple of years this category has been on absolute fire with the double whammy of extremely enthusiastic critical acclaim and crowd-pleasing entertainments via South Korea's Parasite (2019) and Denmark's Another Round (2020). For the first time that we can recall the window of eligibility this season follows the exact calendar year (usually international film contenders calendar runs October to September but last year f***ed with everyone's calendar) so as long as a movie opens in its home country sometime in 2021 it is theoretically eligible for submission. Each country can only send one film, though, as per always.

Here are the first seven contenders announced. If we've reviewed them there's a link...

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