"Hope" and Norway's Oscar History

by Nathaniel R

The Norwegian Film Institute has selected Maria Sødahl's cancer drama Hope to represent them at the Oscars. The film stars Bræn Hovig and the ever-ubiquitous Stellan Skarsgård (who works as often in Scandinavia as he does in Hollywood, which is to say, a lot) as the couple thrown by a terrible diagnosis. Hope was selected over two other finalists which were: Disco by Jorunn Myklebust Syversen about a young girl mixed up with a Christian cult (which we reviewed at TIFF last fall), and Margreth Olin's documentary The Self Portrait about an acclaimed photographer struggling with anorexia. (Olin was submitted 11 years ago for her second narrative feature Angel though she's primarily a documentarian.)

1987 Norwegian nominee "Pathfinder"Norway has been perpetually overshadowed by Sweden and Denmark in terms of the cinema. They have a smaller film industry than their Scandinavian neighbors but the other problem is a noticeable lack of internationally-adored auteurs. We hoped that the rise of Joachim Trier would change that but, alas, the Oscars aren't helping in that regard as he's been submitted twice from his three Norwegian language films and the Academy passed both times.

Oscar stats and great Norwegian films after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Ahead of "The Life Ahead," Actressing in Subtitles in the 2010s

by Juan Carlos Ojano

Cinema legend Sophia Loren makes a potential comeback with this year’s The Life Ahead this Friday on Netflix after more than a decade of career hiatus. Loren made history as the first Oscar winner for a performance not in the English language for 1961’s Italian film Two Women. Her second Best Actress nomination came with 1964’s Marriage Italian Style. If nominated for The Life Ahead, Loren would break the record for the longest gap between nominations with 56 years (though she'd only tie the record for most nominations for subtitled performances since her frequent co-star Marcello Mastroianni holds that record with three).

Loren is part of the longstanding tradition of Best Actress nominations for performances not in the English language (it happens far more often there than in other acting categories). Whether through sheer talent, strategic campaigning, and/or the dearth of quality roles for actresses in Hollywood, these performances overcame the one-inch barrier of subtitles and ended up with Academy recognition...

Click to read more ...

"Sun Children" and Iran's Oscar History

by Nathaniel R

Iran is sending their favourite filmmaking son to the Oscars again. Sixty-one year old prolific filmmaker Majid Majidi brought Iran the first of their three Oscar nominations with his fifth film Children of Heaven (1998); they've submitted him almost every time he's made a feature since. This year his latest film Sun Children, which you'll recall won the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor at Venice this year, about poverty stricken chilldren trying to support their families, will compete for the coveted Best International Feature Film Oscar prize. 

After the jump key Iranian submissions over the years and Oscar trivia...

Click to read more ...

Showbiz History: Oscared Siblings and Tilda's Sensuality

Six random things that happened on this day, November 5th, in showbiz history

Douglas Shearer and his baby sister Norma

1930 The third Oscars were held (yes, the Oscars were in Novembers for three years early in their history. The masterful anti-war picture All Quiet on the Western Front took Best Picture. The First Lady of MGM, Norma Shearer won Best Actress (The Divorcée) but, get this, her big brother Douglas won Best Sound Recording for her Best Picture rival (The Big House) making them the first sibling pair to win Oscars. 15 more pairs of siblings have followed them to win Oscars. They are, in rough chronological order...

Click to read more ...

What will be Portugal's choice?

by Cláudio Alves

Just this weekend, I was singing the praises of Pedro Costa's Vitalina Varela. Lo and behold, the shadowy chamber drama is one of four finalists for Portugal's Oscar submission. A jury of the Portuguese Film Academy, made up of directors Gonçalo Galvão Teles, Lauro António and Monique Rutler, actors Isabel Abreu and Welket Bungué, and cinematographer Miguel Sales Lopes, has selected their finalists from a list of 33 eligible features. The quartet of lucky films are…

 

Click to read more ...