7 Things You Need to Know About the 289 Eligible Oscar Contenders
Tuesday, December 17, 2013 at 9:10PM
NATHANIEL R in Oscar Trivia, Oscars (13), animated films, foreign films, release dates

As you may no doubt have heard AMPAS released the list (included below) of 289 Feature Films which have qualified for Oscar consideration this year in all categories beyond the specialties with complex eligibility rules (documentary, animated, foreign film, shorts). Here are seven things you should know about the list. 

Most Will Come Nowhere Near a Nomination
This list is 289 pictures long but typically only 25-30 feature films each year (excluding, again, the specialty categories which play by different rules) receive nominations of any kind with a few key pictures hogging the goods. In 2012 only 22 pictures won nominations (!) with Lincoln, Life of Pi, Les Miz, and Silver Linings hogging the goods whereas the wealth was spread out more in 2011 when 32 pictures were nominated in some capacity.

Too Easy
This year five films will be nominated for the Best Animated Feature title but only 19 animated films are eligible. Can you imagine if it was that easy proportionately for features, animated or otherwise, to win Best Picture nominations? If it was we'd literally have 75 Best Picture nominees this year since 289 films qualified. Instead we'll have a more sensible number, somewhere between 5 and 10 according to current rules, the number determined by how many films can rustle up enough high ballot support in the Academy membership. MORE TRIVIA AFTER THE JUMP

Multiples
Movie fans joked about the color of the year being “Blue” given the four titles that used it (Blue Jasmine, Blue Caprice, Blue is the Warmest Color, Blue Ruin ... the latter of which is not on the Oscar eligible list). But that's not the only multiple. There are always a million "Two" or "2" (or the new trend "Chapter 2")  titles given Hollywood's franchise addiction so two is disqualified from trending. The number of the year is surely 12. Three acclaimed movies use it in the title: rock documentary 12.12.12, Best Picture hopeful 12 Years a Slave, and the one of a kind indie Short Term 12. Twenty-six more movies feature numbers in the title in 2013 but 50% of those are sequels with the number "2" (or higher) just shoved in somewhere.

Consecutive Days
To be Oscar eligible a film must have played in Los Angeles theaters for at least seven consecutive days. That should be a great rule since it suggests and open ended run and prevents an errant random festival showing from counting as a release. But the studios have of course subverted it to their purposes and it's long since been adopted as a stop gap measure to actually NOT open theatrically... but "qualify" and then wait and see if they can get awardage before the actual real open-ended run. So they're obeying the letter of the law but not the spirit. If you haven't heard of a movie on the list there's a good chance that it might be a dread “qualifier” which opened only to attempt to get a prize.

The Missing Picture is a confusing case: Eligible in foreign film; No longer eligible in documentary; Eligible for everything else due to a stealth qualifying run.

Foreign Film Race
Each year the Academy invites the world to submit one film to represent them in the Oscar race and usually about 65 countries respond with a movie. Foreign Film hopefuls are NOT required to show in L.A. for seven consecutive days to qualify for that particular category but they are required to do that if they want to be eligible in other categories, too. A few brave films opt for a traditional release and others just wait until the following year and hope they get nominated for some added marketing power. This year eleven of the submissions received either regular open-ended or qualifying releases (marked with an asterisk) which makes them eligible in all categories. Those films are Austria's The Wall, Belgium's Broken Circle Breakdown, Cambodia's The Missing Picture*, Chile's Gloria*, Denmark's The Hunt, France's Renoir, Hong Kong's The Grandmaster, Iran's The Past, Italy's The Great Beauty, Saudi Arabia's Wadjda, and Turkey's The Butterfly Dream*. We salute them for doing it right! But here's the confusing catch. The other 50 or so films competing for Best Foreign Film attention may still be eligible for Oscars next year (though not in the foreign film category) IF a) they don't get the foreign film nomination and b) they receive a proper release in 2014. Are you still with me? This is why you'll notice two of last year's non-nominated foreign film submissions on this new list of 289 eligible titles: Afghanistan's The Patience Stone and Australia's Lore

Shortest and Longest Titles
I wish I had running times because it would be fun to note the shortest and the longest actual movies but for what it's worth, we're talking titles. The Mortal Instruments City of Bones or The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug aren't even close to the most unwieldly mouthfuls as film titles go. The prize for most obnoxiously long movie title goes to Tyler Perry's Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor. Honorable mention to the nonsensical sounding anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie - Rebellion. The titles keeping it real simple? baseball drama 42, Spike Jonze Her, the animated epic, and the horror flick Mama.

Upstream Color - not eligible for Oscar

There Were More Than 289 Feature Films Released This Year
...but not every film submits the paperwork necessary to "qualify"... and those titles are usually indies or foreign films. Examples of films which didn't bother: Shane Carruth's Upstream Color, Joe Swanberg's All the Light in the Sky (which I was told opened but I haven't seen evidence and it's so good!), Claire Denis' Bastards, last year's non-nominated Spanish Oscar submission Blancanieves, and indie oddities like The History of Future Folk, Some Girl(s), and Simon Killer.

 

2013'S OFFICIAL LIST OF 289 OSCAR ELIGIBLE FEATURE FILMS

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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