Best International Film: Chile, Netherlands, Spain

by Cláudio Alves

I'm pleased to bring you the annual grouped reviews of the less high profile submissions for Best International Film Oscar. Many major contenders have already been reviewed (check the end of this article for links), but others remain unexamined. With 93 titles to consider, that's bound to happen. So as we wait for December 21st, when the Academy announces its 15-wide shortlist for this particular race, let's take a look at some of those submissions, starting with three previous champions from the category's history.

Chile won once before, while the Netherlands has three Oscars, and Spain counts four previous victories. This year, they submitted a portrait of colonialism, a drama about war's hell, and a dark comedy starring an Oscar-winning international star… 

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Seven new Oscar submissions, French finalists, and a potential Israel/Palestine conflict

by Nathaniel R

LET IT BE MORNING

The announcements of Oscar submissions from various countries are rolling in fast now. If you've missed previous posts we've already covered the submissions from Cambodia, Ecuador, Morocco, Poland, Serbia, Switzerland,  Albania, Ireland, Kyrgzstan, Slovenia, Ukraine, Armenia, Canada, Colombia, Peru, Germany, and Spain and have reviewed three of the films. In today's huge update we have finalists lists from Chile, France, and Sweden as well as official submissions from Greece, Hungary, The Netherlands, Somalia, South Korea, and Taiwan. But let's start with Israel as we foresee complications.

ISRAEL
Each year Israel's own Oscar style prize "The Ophir" is held around this time and whichever film wins becomes the automatic submission. They've only run into trouble with this system twice in the past (once for a film that had too much English and the other time with a tie so they had to vote again for Oscar purposes). But this year might be another. Let It Be Morning, with a largely Palestinian cast from source material by a Palestinian author, was the big winner at the Ophirs so it became the Israeli submission. While the director Erin Kolirin (of The Band's Visit fame) is Israeli, the film is about Palestinians and earlier this summer, the cast refused to attend the Cannes premiere because the festival labelled the film as an Israeli film. One imagines they'll object to this film representing Israel at the Oscars, for the same reason. Potentially complicating matters further is that Palestine also submits to the Oscars...

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What will the Netherlands submit to Oscar?

by Nathaniel R

Will The Netherlands submit "De Oost", currently streaming on Amazon?

For those of you who like to follow the admittedly super niche drama of the submission battles for Oscar's best International Feature Film race, we have another finalist list to report. The Netherlands will be announcing their submission in early October but we have their 14 wide finalist list. The first thing to note is that Paul Verhoeven's excellent lesbian nun drama Benedetta is not on it. Perhaps it's because the Dutch director who The Netherlands have submitted four times (Turkish Delight, Soldier of Orange, The Fourth Man, Black Book)  is now working in France mostly. Elle, his most recent previous picture, was a submission for France and perhaps Benedetta wasn't deemed Dutch enough? Only three of the fourteen possibilities from The Netherlands have anything like an international profile and all three are about young soldiers so we suspect the Dutch will be sending a war drama.

After the jump a brief decription of each finalist, one of which is already in release in the US...

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Buladó and Dutch Films at the Oscars

by Nathaniel R

The Netherlands have submitted the magical realist drama Buladó for the upcoming Oscars. It's the third feature-length film from 42 year-old biracial director Eché Janga. It's a rarity for a Dutch submission in that it doesn't take place in The Netherlands but in one of the former Dutch colonies. It's set in the Caribbean Island of Curaçao (Janga's father is Curaçaoan) and is largely in the language of Papiamento rather than Dutch. 

The Netherlands have an interesting Oscar history because they've won nearly half the time when nominated but the nominations are not super common. They're currently in their longest Oscar drought ever as they haven't been nominated since 2003 (despite three finalists since then)...

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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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