Fenix & Golden Horse Prizes
Sunday, November 29, 2015 at 5:00PM Two sets of international film awards were recently handed out and in the holiday flurry we haven't yet shared them, but since three Oscar submissions dominated, better late than never!
Alfred Castro in "El Club"
Fenix Awards
The Fenix awards are a Mexican based initiative to honor films and industry professionals of Latin America, Spain and Portugal.m They're only in their second year so it's too new to know if they'll make an impact but this year they gave Pablo Larraín's El Club (Chile's tramautizing Oscar submission) Picture, Director, Screenplay and Actor prizes. Alfredo Castro was the acting recipient of the latter (it's a large cast of mostly men and fans of Larraín will know him well since he previously starred in Larraín's other Oscar submissions Tony Manero and No). Embrace of the Serpent (Colombia's mesmerizing Oscar submission for which we're heartily rooting) took Sound, Cinematography, and Music along with Best Director (in a tie)
Golden Horse Awards
The Assassin, which has been marginally successful without quite catching on with audiences, is on a roll with prizes and honors. This past week it dominated the Golden Horse Awards winning six prizes with Picture, Cinematography, Makeup and Costume Design (which are grouped for some reason), Sound Effects and a special filmmaking prize for Hsiao-hsien Hou even though they also gave him Best Director! So that didn't leave much for its chief rivals Mountains May Depart, Port of Call, Tharlo, and Drunk Thanatos but they each were honored in one way or another. Hou's semi-abstract take on the wuxia genre also topped the Sight & Sound Best of 2015 poll.
Which is a long way of saying that this one, which is pretty but alienating, might prove hard for the Academy's Executive Committee to ignore when it comes to their "three saves" for the 9 wide finalist list from which the 5 Best Foreign Language Film nominees will be chosen.
Related: Foreign Film Oscar Charts
Reader Comments (11)
How great to see films this thoroughly uncompromising and brilliant (in the case of The Assassin, full-on transcendent) win mainstream awards. I hope this somehow translates to tickets sold in US/West European theatres. Neither of these has even a B-level arthouse celebrity in the mix so they need all the help they can get.
I just saw NASTY BABY and was surprised to ser that it is produced by Pablo Larrain...
He is becoming a powerhouse
Fyi, It was rumored tt Shu Qi lost best actress at The Golden Horse by only ONE vote, not bcos of her actin abilities (which was widely admired by the jury) but by her impenetrable role. The winner, Karena Lam (Zinnia Flower) had a similar role but w more emotional outlet.
What goran said. It's great to see something as glorious - though obviously divisive - as The Assassin winning top prizes. I guess art house cinema - actual art house cinema, not mainstream product vamping for awards season, or foreign directors auditioning for studio assignments - is still alive.
Marcello, both Larrain and and Silva are from Chile and I think finding global recognition at the same time has clearly bonded them into working together.
Films like THE ASSASSIN will always do better in their home countries than they do elsewhere.
As for the foreign language category, I randomly made predictions on Twitter last night that the nine-title shortlist will be: Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia*, India, Jordan, Hungary, Iceland, Sweden* and Taiwan* (* denoting executive committee choices).
True story: a friend of mine smoked some pot and went to see The Assassin. He's still entranced. (it's not me)
Chilean cinema is so having a moment. GLORIA, the films of Larraín & Silva, and now a buzzy animated short too in the finalist list.
On the topic of Chilean cinema, much as I loved The Club - an even better Chilean film was The Pearl Button, Patricio Guzman's companion piece to the similarly astounding and indescribably beautiful Nostalgia for the Light. Synopses make them sound like really difficult docs but they're absolutely not. Very accessible and deeply moving and visually a feast.
goran -- who knows. maybe that will be a documentary nominee
@Nathaniel Yes, Chilean cinema is HOT right now! They also recently had Violeta Went to Heaven and To Kill A Man which both won the Sundance World Cinema Grand Jury Prize back to back. And these films are all from different directors. Really impressive.
I finally saw THE ASSASSIN last month, just before it left theaters, and I have to say I was absolutely mesmerized...this despite being quite confused about details in the plot and the characters' exact relationship to one another. I got enough to know what was generally going on, and just let the film wash over me. Possibly the most purely *sensory* filmgoing experience I've had all year. Definitely glad I caught it on a big movie screen.