And So It Begins: Oscars, Politics, and the Philippines
Friday, October 4, 2024 at 5:30PM 
Photo: Cine Diaz
Much has been said about how political the submission process for Best International Feature Film at the Oscars is. That assumption is fair. To quickly summarize the submission process, countries must form a nominating body - approved by their respective governments - that the Academy will then consider. These bodies will be in charge of selecting which films will represent the countries in contention for the award. This season, you have a contender like The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Iran didn’t submit it, director Mohammad Rasoulof is in conflict with the government and escaped the country, so Germany submitted it instead) and All We Imagine as Light (India didn’t submit it, director Payal Kapadia is outspokenly critical of the government) as proof of how contentious and political this process is. Make no mistake: everything about the Oscars is political.
But if there is a film with a fascinating narrative entering this category, it’s the Philippines’ official submission: Ramona S. Díaz’s And So It Begins...