International Oscar Update: A Boat Load of Official Contenders

by Nathaniel R

We have now reached the season where it's hard to keep up with all the updates and it will keep on being this way throughout September. Nevertheless I'm at least keeping the submission charts up to date. At this writing twenty-five countries have selected their official contender for Best International Feature Film. We can safely expect another 60 or so countries to submit by the deadline of October 1. In terms of participation the category peaked at 97 contenders back in 2020 and has been dipping slightly since and has returned to 2010 numbers (the high 80s).

After the jump the "new" announcements since our last update are in bold and I've highlighted one new contender per chart for fun...

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Baker's Dozen: Best Screen Animals of 2022

by Nathaniel R

One of the underdiscussed joys of cinema, at least if you're an animal lover, are the non-human creatures that swim, gallop, slither, hop, and play across the screens. Debates continue about the use of non-human actors onscreen, but animal characters can be as memorable as their human scene partners whether they're computer generated, stop motion puppets, or furry or feathered actors. 2022's cinema gave us the full menagerie. Among the most memorable "real" animals, for better and worse, were Empire of Light's wounded pigeon, A Man Called Otto's feral yet easily domesticated cat, Everything Everywhere All At Once's weaponized pom, the homicidal chimp and lion of Nope and Beast, respectively, and Babylon's diarrhetic elephant. If you prefer fantastical beasties, the titular animated characters from The Sea Beast, My Father's Dragon, and DC League of Super Pets had their charms while "Socks" the robot cat of Lightyear was that misjudged film's MVP.

Speaking of fantastic, the following list is dedicated to Meilin in Turning Red for embracing her inner red panda, even if she isn't technically eligible being an all-too relatable teenage human girl person... 

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Awards Season Catchup: The Bad Guys

By Abe Friedtanzer

One of this year’s most successful contenders for Best Animated Feature was released way back in April. It hasn't been as present on the awards circuit as its success and generally positive reviews would suggest. Whatever prizes it ultimately wins would only add to the fact that this family-friendly caper comedy, based on Aaron Blabey’s book series, is highly enjoyable and very much worth seeking out.

Wolf introduces audiences to his team of notorious thieves, who commit major heists and other crimes as regularly as possible. They do it partly for the big takes, but also for the specific joy from getting away with it...

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Where is the buzz for "My Father's Dragon"?

by Nathaniel R

"Too much of a good thing" sounds like an oxymoron but it's something that can happen. It's difficult to look at this year's Best Animated Feature Race for instance and not wonder whether Netflix's endless supply of movies is not totally working. This year alone they have enough contenders to fill up literally that entire Oscar category all by themselves and all of them come from previous Oscar nominees: Richard Linklater's nostalgia piece Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood, Chris Williams' animated adventure The Sea Beast, Henry Selick's horror-comedy Wendell & Wild and Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio next month.

Somehow Netflix's fifth contender, Cartoon Saloon's My Father's Dragon (which began streaming this month) has generated little press despite being quite charming, beautiful to look at, and also arriving with a ready made Oscar pedigree...

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Review: Skolimowski's "EO" is a miracle!

by Cláudio Alves

Can donkeys dream of heaven? One hopes so, for they need not search for hell in sleepy fantasy – they live it every day, wide awake. A world defined by human cruelty demands dreams of something better, something beyond the pain. Is it peace, love, a state of joy? Maybe it's red.

EO all starts in red. Bathed in scarlet light, skin touches fur, human hands over the animal's body, a trance-like choreography that's both intimate and public. There's a closeness to these touches that transcends their physical softness, a beauty that's more than mere performance for circus audiences – it's that heaven we spoke about, but maybe it's hell, too. Red will linger, a memory, perhaps a reverie. Dreams are nightmares by another name, and so is EO, both nightmare and dream right from the beginning…

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