Venice Diary #04 - "The Whale" is a major contender

by Elisa Giudici

As festival goers, we are always waiting for that moment in which we can clearly perceive a film moving into a territory of absolute excellence, far above the norm. It's a sensation that is rare and powerful, and the only response is to shout superlative and add to the hype. I'm happy to report that the new Darren Aronofsky feature, The Whale, is one of those gigantic achievements...

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Sweden's three Oscar submission finalists

by Nathaniel R

BOY FROM HEAVEN

In something of a surprise Sweden's shortlist for their Oscar submissions does not include the adolescent grief drama Comedy Queen or the Tehran-set serial killer film Holy Spider, which won awards at Berlinale and Cannes, respectively. Instead they'll be choosing between the following three movies...

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Japan and Latvia and make their Oscar submissions

Two more official Oscar submissions to report bringing us to a dozen competitors. Only about 80 films to go!  It's starting to feel exciting, isn't it? At least it is for us here at TFE since we love the diversity and eye-opening capabilities of this category. The latest countries to choose their films are Japan and Latvia.

🇯🇵 PLAN 75
Japan (14 nominations, 2 wins, 3 honorary awards, and 1 additional finalist from 69 submissions)

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Poland & Ecuador make their Oscar picks

by Nathaniel R

Poland won their first Oscar in the Best International Feature Film category for Ida (2014) eight years ago and surely came closer than expected to a second win four years ago with a late surge for the brilliant Cold War (2018) which also scored Best Director and Best Cinematography nominations. In fact, Poland has had a major comeback with the Oscars in the past 15 years, racking of nearly half of their nomination total after a quarter century drought from the last time the Academy couldn't get enough of their cinema back in the mid seventies to early eighties.  Can they keep their hot streak going with the buzzy donkey point-of-view feature, EO... 

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Spain announces its three Oscar finalists. Plus: Spain's Oscar history

by Nathaniel R

Earlier today in Spain, the actress Maria Pedraza Morillo (Money Heist, Elite) had the privilege of announcing the three films that will compete to become Spain's Oscar submission for 2022. These three films were selected from a pool of 43 films (we have not been able to find the longlist) and now they will be narrowed down to one by September 13th as the members of Spain's Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences vote. Which of the following three do you think it will be? 

Details on their choices after the jump...

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