TIFF '24: "By the Stream" could be a good introduction to the cinema of Hong Sang-soo

by Cláudio Alves

There's an odd comfort in seeking the new Hong Sang-soo film at any given festival. Thanks to the speed at which the Korean auteur runs through production, you'll usually find one. He regularly premieres multiple features every year. Earlier in 2024, he won the Silver Bear at Berlin with A Traveler's Needs. A few months later, he was at Locarno, ready to present his overall 32nd feature-length project, By the Stream, which took the Best Performance award for Kim Min-hee's work. This second project also made it to TIFF, delighting loyal fans with a new Hong that's much like all the other Hongs that came before. That's not a dig, merely a recognition of the director's remarkable consistency…

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Three more Best International Film Contenders & Finalist Lists

by Nathaniel R

THREE KILOMETRES TO THE END OF THE WORLD © Vlad Dumitrescu

It's that time of year when countries are regularly announcing their Oscar submission. We started the week with 15 contenders but now we're at 18 and we have three new finalist lists, as well... 

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International Feature Race - 15 Contenders Thus Far

by Nathaniel R

Though I know I've been absent from writing, I have been updating the International Feature Film Oscar charts to track the submissions. So far 15 countries have announced their submissions, some of which are available to US viewers. After the jump, the list so far, impending decisions from Israel and South Korea, and general observations...

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TIFF '23: "Concrete Utopia" is an earth-shaking blockbuster parable

by Cláudio Alves

Genre cinema has long been the home of social critique through allegory. Think back to Godzilla's reflection on Japan's atomic trauma or Night of the Living Dead's invention of the zombie movie as the place to study civilization's collapse. South Korea's new Oscar submission, Concrete Utopia, follows the tradition. Though, here, you'll find no Romero undead or radioactive kaiju to distract and reflect human folly at the viewer. Instead, Tae-hwa Eom's latest tackles the precepts of the disaster flick with a dash of post-apocalyptic dystopia, showing Humanity's self-made ruin in the aftermath of a massive earthquake that renders Seoul a wasteland…

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International Oscars - Estonia, Germany, Netherlands, South Korea, and Uruguay

by Nathaniel R

After that first round of news, we have more info on the International Oscar race to share. First, we have three more official submissions for the upcoming race: Estonia will submit the documentary Smoke, Sauna, Sisterhood; South Korea has gone very mainstream choosing the earthquake drama Concrete Utopia  (that probably means no nomination given that the Academy generally only pays attention to South Korea when they lean auteur... and even then they don't pay much attention despite South Korea having a very healthy and respected film industry); Finally, Uruguay will submit the comedy Family Album about a father and his teenage son forming a band. 

Even if those three films don't sound right up Oscar's alley, you really never know, do you? It all depends on how the volunteer voters who screen enough of the films to vote respond to their selections. We also now know two more unofficial finalist lists from Germany and Netherlands, both of which have won the category multiple times...

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