Foreign Oscar Track: Israel and Norway

Two more countries, neither of which have ever won the Foreign Film Prize in Hollywood, have announced their finalists lists.

We'll take Norway first since it's less popular with Oscar (5 nominations) and because I stand humbly before you to say I was wrong. My conjecture about what might be submitted -- other than the new Joachim Trier -- was quite wobbly. The three finalists are not the biggies from the Amanda awards but Joachim Trier’s Oslo, August 31st (Oslo, 31. august) which we briefly discussed, Anne Sewitsky’s Happy, Happy (Sykt lykkelig) and Jens Lien’s Sons of Norway (Sønner av Norge). While Trier has the highest international profile, that doesn't always equate with submission choice. Happy Happy is a very frisky marital comedy (I ♥ the trailer) and Sons of Norway is a punk rock coming of age film that even features a cameo from Sex Pistol Johnny Rotten. Neither of the trailers are subtitled and both feature nudity but if you want to see them they're here: Happy Happy and Sons of Norway.

Award winning filmmaker Joseph CedarIsrael, which has been nominated nine times (and thrice consecutively in recent years), just announced the nominees for their Oscars, the Ophir Awards.  This is always the list they pull from for their Best Foreign Language Film submission so it's probably going to be the 13 times nominated (whew) frontrunner Joseph Cedar's Footnote which played at Cannes winning the Screenplay award but garnering somewhat mixed reviews. It's about feuding father and son professors at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Writer/director Joseph Cedar, who was actually born here in New York City, was previously nominated for the soldier drama Beaufort (2007). 

But if there's a dark horse submission it'll be one of these four: Yossi Madmoni's Restoration, Nadav Lapid's Policeman (Ha-Shoter) Marco Carmel's My Lovely Sister or Maya Kenig's Off White Lies... all of which are more difficult to find info on then the Norwegian films at this point.

Slowly Evolving Oscar Foreign Film Pages Are Here.

Reader of the Day: Yonatan

We're wrapping up Reader Appreciation Month but so many people seem to be enjoying "reader of the day" that we'll keep doing them... just not every single day. Stay tuned...

I thought we'd close the month with Yonatan (you can call him "Jonathan") from Israel. Why? Well because he had a job a couple of years back that I think all of you (not to mention me) would be jealous of: talking about the movies on TV! Sweet.

He started reading The Film Experience due to the foreign film Oscar pages and he was one of many readers who started sending me regular info on their home country so I could keep up the pages. Yonatan and I share a love of really insignificant trivia. For instance, he recently wondered aloud by e-mail if Kathryn Bigelow's Strange Days (1995) and Jane Campion's Portrait of a Lady were the longest English language films directed by women... I countered with An Angel at My Table, also by Jane Campion, at 158 minutes but he argues that what conceived as a miniseries so it shouldn't count. Referee!?

Nathaniel: Do you remember your first moviegoing experience?
YONATAN: I'm sure I've been to a movie theater before this, but the first movie I remember being taken to see was The Journey of Natty Gann, a few months before my sixth birthday! A few months later my mother let me stay up late two nights in a row to watch the 1985 star studded mini-series "Alice in Wonderland". I had no idea at the time who those "stars" were, but I had to see it!

What's your moviegoing diet like right about now?
Three years ago I got the chance to have a weekly live movie review segment on TV. Unfortunately, I don't appear on TV anymore, but I do write reviews (in Hebrew, at edb.co.il), and attend 2-5 advanced screenings a week. On slow weeks, I also watch movies at home, bringing me to a healthy average of 200 movies a year (not including movies I watch again just for fun).

[Here's Yonatan talking about WALL•E. I couldn't understand a word but I'm certain he is saying adorable things.]

 
Your 3 Favorite Actresses. Go!
Diane Keaton, Meryl Streep. Can I say Cate Winslet and Kate Blanchett to count them as one?

Elkabetz photographed by Jérome Bonnet I haven't seen a movie with Parker Posey in years, so she's been demoted. And let me just slip in Jodie Foster, Debra Winger, Jane Fonda, Gong Li, Carole Lombard, and everybody in the world should know the Israeli actress Ronit Elkabetz.

Ohmygod. She was brilliant in Late Marriage. I need to see her in other things.

Okay... They make a movie of your life. Tell us about it.
I like my life but it's pretty boring from the side and I wouldn't want to see that movie; you'll have to wait for the movie I wrote which is in early stages of development.

What's one movie you always recommend to people?
A movie that tops my list of recommendations is The Big Chill (1983). It's just perfect. The cast, the soundtrack, the dialog. It's touching and it has humor- so many great lines! Every scene ends with a punchline.

all reader of the day posts: Yonatan, Keir, Kyle, Jamie, Vinci, Victor, Bill, Hayden, Dominique, Murtada, Cory, Walter, Paolo, Leehee and BBats