Yesterday morning I had to pass up a chance to see Hungary's Foreign Film submission The Turin Horse which saddened me. But half an hour of footage of peasants boiling potatoes in black and white mixed with three hours of sleep (2011 Insomnia Plague right here!) would not be an ideal match. If I die from operating heavy machinery while sleep deprived (what if my computer falls on me?) please know that it was fun talking movies with you this past decade.
The Turin Horse -- not to be watched without sleep
OSCAR'S FOREIGN FILM RACE
But good news! This week I will be seeing Mexico's submission Miss Bala (more specifically I'm watching it as you read this), Iran's submission A Separation, Turkey's probable submission (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia) and what I suspect will be Argentina's submission The Student which recently received the Academy's official "go ahead, then" despite some initial concerns about its eligibility (something due to the format it was shot in). In other words, it's on! I don't think anyone, even those who say they do, knows what will happen this year with either the executive committee or the nominating groups given how many high profile critical darlings and crowd-pleasing baity entries are already in the mix to split all types of aesthetics in the voting. And we still don't even know about 20 entries including three big deal Oscar countries: Spain (19 noms, 4 wins) update: it's Pa Negre (Black Bread) a Spanish Civil War Drama that won big at the Goyas, Italy (26 noms, 10 wins) and the Czech Republic (8 noms, 3 wins).
Joshua Marston shot by Andreas Rentz in Berlin, 2011CONTROVERSY
In related news, the controversies we've already noted here are covered over at Deadline in more detail in addition to the new but totally expected story that Albanian's entry "The Forgiveness of Blood" might not be deemed Albanian enough what with Joshua Marston (from California) in the director's chair.
Given that Marston was already booted out of this category once (Maria Full of Grace) due to his citizenship despite his international spirit -- consider that he has yet to make an English language feature -- we are reminded again how frustrating the Academy rules are. You do have to have rules, mind, but there are always casualties when the letter of the law rather than the spirit rules.
Please to enjoy the ever-expanding charts and pass them on! Nobody gives you this category like The Film Experience.
Trailer for the Swiss entry and the entire Cuban film (if you can speak Spanish) after the jump.
SUMMER GAMES from Switzerland, a marital drama and coming-of-age story.
HABANASTATION from Cuba this is apparently the complete movie (!) from YouTube provided you can speak Spanish. It looks at two boys of different socioeconomic classes in the same class room.
DISCLAIMER
For those of you keeping track who can't be bothered to look at our beautiful beautiful charts that brings us to 46 submissions. Bear in mind that none of these are set in stone. When the Academy announces the official list in October there is nearly always a casualty or a switcheroo from behind the scenes that contradicts what's previously been reported.
- Albania - The Forgiveness of Blood, Joshua Marston
- Austria - Breathing, Karl Markovics
- Belgium - Bullhead, Michaël R. Roskam
- Bosnia and Herzegovina - Belvedere, Ahmed Imamović
- Brazil - Tropa de Elite 2, José Padilha
- Bulgaria - Tilt, Viktor Chouchkov
- Canada - Monsieur Lazhar, Philippe Falardeau
- Chile - Violeta, Andres Wood
- China - Flowers of War, Zhang Yimou
- Colombia - The Colors of the Mountain, Carlos César Arbeláez
- Cuba -Habanastation, Ian Padron
- Czech Republic - Alois Nebel, Tomás Lunák
- Denmark - SuperClásico, Ole Christian Madsen
- Finland - Le Havre, Aki Kaurismäki
- France - Declaration of War, Valérie Donzelli
- Germany - Pina, Wim Wenders
- Greece - Attenberg, Athina Rachel Tsangari
- Hong Kong - A Simple Life, Ann Hui
- Hungary - The Turin Horse, Bela Tarr
- Iceland - Volcano, Rúnar Rúnarsson
- India - Adaminte Makan Abu, Salim Ahamed
- Iran - A Separation, Asghar Farhadi
- Israel - Footnote, dJoseph Cedar
- Ireland - As If I Am Not There, Juanita Wilson
- Japan - Postcard, Kaneto Shindō
- Lebanon - Where Do We Go Now?, Nadine Labaki
- Lithuania - Back to Your Arms, Kristijonas Vildžiūnas
- Mexico - Miss Bala, Gerardo Naranjo
- Morocco - Omar Killed Me, Roschdy Zem
- Netherlands - Sonny Boy, Maria Peters
- Norway - Happy, Happy, Anne Sewitsky
- Peru - October, Daniel Vega Vidal
- Philippines - The Woman in the Septic Tank, Marlon Rivera
- Poland - In Darkness, Agnieszka Holland
- Portugal - Jose and Pilar, Miguel Gonçalves Mendes
- Romania - Morgen, Marian Crisan
- Russia - Burnt By The Sun 2: Citadel Nikita Mikhalkov
- Serbia - Montevideo, God Bless You! Dragan Bjelogrlić
- Slovakia - Gypsy, Martin Sulik
- South Africa - Beauty, Oliver Hermanus
- South Korea - The Front Line, Jang Hun
- Sweden - Beyond, Pernilla August
- Switzerland - Summer Games, Rolando Colla
- Taiwan - Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale, Wei Te-Sheng
- Venezuela - The Rumble of the Stones, Alejandro Bellame Palacios
- Vietnam - Thang Long Aspiration, Lưu Trọng Ninh