100th Anniversary: "Leaves from Satan's Book"

by Cláudio Alves

Carl Theodor Dreyer is one of my favorite filmmakers. I'll never forget the first time I watched The Passion of Joan of Arc on the big screen and was transported, how experiencing Vampyr felt like witnessing a projected nightmare, the ecstasy of Ordet's ending or Gertrud's stern ruminations on love. It's to my great shame that I'm not familiar with the Danish director's early works, having mostly ignored them until now. The centennial of Dreyer's second feature, Leaves from Satan's Book, makes this a great time to start correcting these cinephilic lacunas…

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"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...

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Sweden's Oscar History

by Nathaniel R

Charter, a child custody and abduction drama, will represent Sweden this season at the Oscars. It previously played at the Göteborg, Sundance, and Zurich film festivals. It's the second feature from Amanda Kernell who won several festival awards with her debut Sami Blood (2016). Familiar face and acclaimed Norwegian star Ane Dahl Torp (1001 Grams, Pioneer, Dead Snow, The Wave) headlines. 

Though Denmark is currently more popular with Oscar voters than Sweden, Sweden is the all-time leader among Scandinavian countries. That's due in large part to three auteurs: Ingmar Bergman, Jan Troell, and Bo Widerberg who were contemporaries in mid 20th century cinema. An investigation of Sweden's Oscar history after the jump...

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More International Oscar News: Several "Finalist" Lists Announced

by Nathaniel R

The Man Standing Next ...has the difficult task of following in Parasite's footsteps!

The submission charts for Oscar's Best International Feature Film race have been updated to reflect more new entries like Croatia's Extracurricular, Palestine's Gaza Mon Amour, Panama's war drama Causa Justa , Romania's documentary Collective, and South Korea's The Man Standing Next.

But the big news at the moment is six finalist lists so keep your eye out for any of these pictures to rise up...

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Will Mads Mikkelsen have another Oscar hit?

by Nathaniel R

Mads Mikkelsen stars in "Another Round"

Denmark is currently Oscar's favourite country in the Best International Feature category. Yes, we know they're not the "all time" favourite country, so don't @ us. But in the past 10 years (2010-2019) they've been nominated 50% of the time, with two additional finalists. Deep involvement in 70% of the Oscar conversations in a decade is a pretty great track record. How long can they keep it up? We won't know if they'll nab another nomination this season until a few months from now but Denmark just announced their finalists. On November 17th, they'll choose their submission between the following films: 

• Another Round by Thomas Vinterberg 
• A Perfectly Normal Family by Malou Reymann
• Shorta by Anders Ølholm and Frederik Louis Hviid. 

If Denmark wants to bet based on past success they'll go with Another Round.  It just won the top prize at the London Film Festival. Plus, international star Mads Mikkelsen has headlined three Oscar-nominated films from his home country previously....

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